The management of the Bayero University Kano (BUK) has suspended all ongoing school activities, including its ongoing First Semester Undergraduate examinations.

Naija News reports that the announcement was contained in a statement signed and issued by the university’s Acting Registrar, Amina Abdullahi, stating that all other academic activities for the 2022/2023 academic session are temporarily on hold due to the nationwide strike embarked upon by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC).

The University Management has directed all students to remain calm and await further directives.

“It should be noted that the ongoing examinations are halfway through, and as soon as the strike is over, the examinations will continue,” the statement added.

ASUU Joins NLC Nationwide Strike
Earlier, some affiliates of Organised Labour have indicated their intention to join the nationwide strike starting Monday midnight.

In a circular to its zonal coordinators and chairpersons, signed by its President, Emmanuel Osodeke, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) directed its members to join the nationwide strike declared by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria.

ASUU stated that it decided to join the strike to protect the interest of Nigerian workers and the union’s leadership.

The circular reads, “As an affiliate of NLC, all members of our union are hereby directed to join this action of NLC to protect the interest of Nigerian workers and the leadership of the union.

“Zonal coordinators and branch chairpersons should immediately mobilise our members to participate in the action.”

The Nigerian midfielder Wilfred Ndidi is reportedly close to leaving Championship team Leicester City to sign with FC Barcelona the following summer.

Aside from FC Barcelona, the English Premier League team Tottenham Hotspur are also preparing to challenge the Spanish champions for the services of Wilfred Ndidi.

His deal at Leicester City is set to expire at the end of the current campaign, and renewal is primarily dependent on Leicester City’s chances of returning to the Premier League next summer.

After Leicester was relegated to the Premier League the previous season, Ndidi was rumored to be leaving the King Power stadium, especially after players like Harvey Barnes, Timothy Castagne, and James Maddison left for elite clubs.

However, he remained at the club and he has made 15 appearances in all competitions, recording three goals and four assists so far this season. He has helped Leicester gain the upper hand in the standings with 13 wins in their opening 16 games.

Barcelona are trying to sign the Super Eagles midfielder for free, as they have done for the past two seasons, due to their well-known financial difficulties.

Because of the Bosman ruling, Barcelona will be able to sign Ndidi to a contract in January with the expectation that he will be available for a free transfer the following summer.

The Catalans are not the only team interested in the Nigerian, as Ange Postecoglou, the manager of Tottenham, has reportedly shown a strong interest in Ndidi.

Teamtalk, a UK publication, reports that Postecoglou is willing to bring Ndidi to the team when his contract expires in the summer of 2024 because he does not think Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg is the best fit for his system.

Former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Muhammad Sanusi II, has said the apex bank’s lending to the federal government under the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari through Ways and Means triggered inflationary pressure in Nigeria and weakened the value of the Naira.

The CBN’s loan to the federal government hit N22.7 trillion, an amount the CBN said had been securitised not to dampen its balance sheet. Ways and Means is a way in which the federal government raises funds by borrowing from the CBN.  

The 14th Emir of Kano also said the central bank had embarked on aggressive monetary tightening through various liquidity control instruments, including open market operations, Open Buy Back (OBB) and high T-bills rates, an indication that the bank was sticking to its core mandate of financial systems stability and inflation control.

“I am optimistic, especially in the short term. We’ve had eight years of rapid expansion of the central bank’s balance sheet through ways and means. And that has fueled inflation and weakened the currency. And that is the fact,” Sanusi II said yesterday at MTN Capital Markets Day, an event organised by MTN Group to provide updates and insights to the financial community, including investors, analysts, and stakeholders.

Current governor of the CBN Olayemi Cardoso had said the bank would return to its primary role of price stability.  

Acknowledging that the central bank can use different instruments to mop up excess money in circulation, Sanusi said it needs to do it in a manner that minimizes the cost to both the central bank and the government’s balance sheet, and that’s why it has to rely a little more on non-conventional instruments.

“If you look at OMO Bills and OBB rates in the last few weeks, I can see that the central bank has started a process of aggressive tightening. OBB rates are beginning to approach what they should be. And I think that’s what the market needs to look at; that the central bank is taking this role of tightening money and fighting inflation as a primary focus,” he stated at the event.

He urged the audience to show understanding with the fact that those new monetary policies take time to manifest.

“For the short term, I don’t think we have a problem. I think the central bank is doing the right thing – tightening money, clearing the backlog, trying to fund the market, and I think we will have stability.”

Earlier, CBN’s director in charge of the research department, Dr Omolara Duke, who represented Cardoso at the event said: “The Ways and Means will no longer be more than five percent, going forward. The period for the government to access Ways and Means is over.”

She also disclosed that the central bank is looking at how to drive down the cost of remittances to increase the inflow and move them away from the informal sector into the formal.

[Leadership]

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says the old N200, N500, and N1,000 notes are to remain legal tender indefinitely.

While new currency notes were introduced last year with the old ones set to cease as legal tender, the apex bank on Tuesday extended “the legal tender status deadline of the old design of N200, N500 and N1,000 denominations, ad infinitum”.

It explained that the move is in line with international best practices and “to forestall a repeat of earlier experiences.

“Thus, all banknotes issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in accordance with Section 20(5) of the CBN Act 2007, will continue to remain legal tender, ad infinitum, even beyond the initial December 31, 2023, deadline. The Central Bank of Nigeria is working with the relevant authorities to vacate the subsisting court ruling on the same subject.”

In a statement, the bank’s Director of Corporate Communications Isa AbdulMumin said CBN will continue to issue and accept all denominations of the bank notes, old and redesigned, to and from deposit money banks (DMBs).

[NaijaTimes]

Gov Dauda Lawal of Zamfara state has declared a state of emergency on education in the state while suspending licences for private educators within its jurisdiction.

The state government attributed the decision to years of deterioration in the education sector.

Governor Lawal who made the announcement during a state-wide broadcast on Tuesday, November 14, said;

“The neglected education system in Zamfara affects all levels, from primary to tertiary institutions, with poor learning environments and personnel.

“To maintain a minimum level of quality in education delivery, the government has suspended the licences of private education providers in the state.

“This will ensure that private schools meet the required standards for providing quality education.”

The finance minister has said that CNG costs are half of petrol costs in Nigeria. He said this during the November 14 launch of the Nigerian Banking Sector report by Afrinvest in Lagos.  

The country’s Finance Minister, Wale Edun, was represented by Dr. Armstrong Takang, the Managing Director of the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MoFI).

According to him, increasing the adoption of CNG in Nigeria will reduce the cost of production for businesses and households, while noting that the country needs a ramp-up in investments to aid the full implementation of the CNG plan.  

He said: 

• “I do not know if any of you have been watching the campaign on the substitution of premium motor spirit (PMS) for CNG. It is an early step that we are taking. When you look at the price of CNG versus PMS, it ranges from half of it and sometimes it comes down to a quarter of what it costs to run on PMS. 
• “We believe that given that we are a gas nation and gas is cleaner than PMS, if we aggressively move in that direction, it can have a significant impact on the cost of not only fueling our vehicles, but mass transit, as well as factories that run on fuel and diesel.  
• “We are taking steps in that direction. You will be seeing some announcements in due course in terms of steps that are being taken to trigger a demand in that value chain.  There is a lot of investment that has to be done in terms of conversion kits, refuelling stations, and in terms of midstream in terms of transportation of infrastructure and upstream.  
• “A lot of investment needs to go into that. We believe that it provides an opportunity for the private sector to partner.” 

The Tinubu-led administration is focused on the adoption of compressed natural gas (CNG) as a cheaper alternative (N213 per standard cubic meter as of August 2023) to the use of PMS (petrol) in the country due to the removal of subsidies which have impacted petrol pump prices (now at N640 per liter in Abuja and over N685 in Kano, Sokoto states).  

In August 2023, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited went into an agreement with Nipco Gas Limited to develop mother-daughter stations across the country from 2024 to provide CNG to Nigerians at a cheaper rate than petrol.

However, before such a plan can be implemented, there needs to be mass conversion of vehicles and other large equipment to run on CNG.  

According to the NNPCL, under the strategic partnership with Nipco, 35 state-of-the-art CNG stations will be constructed nationwide, including three (3) Mother stations.

Once fully operational, the stations can service over 200,000 vehicles daily, thereby significantly reducing the cost of automobile fuel for Nigerians and the cost of transportation. 

The project will be rolled out in phases. The first phase, comprising 21 CNG stations, will support intra-city transportation and be ready by the first quarter of 2024; while the second phase, comprising 35 CNG stations, will support inter-city transformation and will be ready by late 2024.

This will be further complemented by an additional 56 stations to be deployed by NNPC Retail across the country. 

 [Nairametrics]

A man identified as Oladimeji Hassan has been arrested by the Lagos State Police Command after he was caught with a locally made gun and 25 live cartridges.
 
Policemen attached to the Ojodu Division of the command apprehended the suspect at the Berger area of the state on Tuesday, November 14, 2023.

 
The command in a statement posted on its official X account said investigation is ongoing.
 
“Oladimeji Hassan, a 27-year-old male, was arrested at Berger earlier today by Ojodu Division officers. Following a search, he was found in possession of a locally made gun and 25 live cartridges. The investigation is currently underway,” the statement read.

Former All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman, Senator Adams Oshiomhole has said that the performance of the Governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodinma led to his re-election in the November 11 off-cycle election.

Oshiomhole argued that Uzodinma’s performance endeared him to the hearts of the electorate.

He stated this yesterday in Abuja while speaking to State House reporters after a meeting with Vice President Kashim Shettima.

The senator insisted that sponsored commentary on television and blogs failed to influence the mindset of the electorates because they saw the good works of Uzodinma.

According to him, “The people chose based on the performance of the governor in the last four years.

“There have been a lot of forces working to undermine security in the state, and they’ve resorted to measures that are adding tension in Imo and some people even want to plunge the state into darkness, believing that when it is dark, the people cannot vote.

“But, my take away from the Imo election is that these forgotten majority of people who are voiceless, who can’t even have access to you, have the power of the ballot.

“That it is not what sponsored commentators say on television or sponsored writers write in newspapers that will inform their judgment, their judgments will be formed by what they have seen the governor doing, and those aspect of what the governor is doing that touch them.

“For example, when the governor constructs a road to the village, a village that was not accessible before and you tell those villagers that the governor is bad. They’ll say ‘he may be bad for you o, but he’s good for me’.

“When I saw the governor commissioning a very modern hospital in a remote area and you go on television to say ‘that Governor Hope is a bad man,’they’ll say ‘he’s bad to you, but he gave us hospital. We are going to give him our votes.

“For me, that is the beauty of democracy and it also put on notice, commentators that they shouldn’t sit in the comfort of state capitals and comment almost with managerial confidence about the goings on in the state when they have never even visited that state.“

[NaijaNews]

Apostle Christoper Mudavarima, the General Overseer of the Zimbabwean church, Living Waters Ministries, has been accused of deceit, exploiting vulnerable women particularly single mothers by promising them marriage within his church community.

The controversy came to light when incriminating evidence, including pictures and chat transcripts, surfaced in a church WhatsApp group.

One unidentified victim exposed Mudavarima’s alleged pattern of proposing marriage to numerous women within the church, soliciting financial contributions under the guise of Apostle Vutabwashe’s endorsement.

Reacting to the allegation made by 12 women, the cleric admitted having an affair with three different women.

Speaking to H-Metro, he said;

“What they are saying are all lies, but I double-crossed three different women so they teamed up to fabricate these stories. It’s Maggie who opened my phone and found out that I was dating Candy and Claris.”

Speaking on the matter, one victim, who chose to remain anonymous, voiced her distress: “This man is a womaniser, he has been proposing to different women in church.”

Apostle Christopher Mudawarima reportedly has a track record of being involved in controversies stemming from questionable actions, and this recent incident isn’t an isolated one.

In April 2022, Mudawarima was convicted of defrauding a job seeker of US$183 by falsely promising to secure a job for them at a mining company.

According to the Masvingo Mirror, Mudawarima received a sentence of 48 months, with 18 months suspended on the condition that he reimburse the complainant, and an additional 3 months suspended contingent upon good behavior.

Court proceedings revealed that the accused had a previous six-month suspended jail term from another case, which was reactivated. Consequently, he faces an effective 30-month prison term. The reason behind his absence from state custody remains unclear.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has arrived in San Francisco, U.S., to attend a Summit with President Joe Biden.

The Summit is also the 30th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Meeting that started on November 14 and will end on November 17.

In a statement on Wednesday, Chinese Ambassador to the U.S., Xie Feng, said that Xi arrived on Tuesday afternoon local time.

The statement said: “Xi was warmly greeted by many overseas Chinese, including Chinese students studying abroad, who waved both Chinese and American flags along routes from the airport to welcome the Chinese President.

“Cai Qi, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, and Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, also a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, arrived San Francisco in the same flight.

“At San Francisco International Airport, Xi received warm reception from senior U.S. officials, including U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen and California Governor Gavin Newsom.”

The highly-anticipated meeting between Xi and Biden, who are the leaders of the world’s two largest economies, is centered on calls for joint efforts from both sides to bring bilateral relations back on track.

The statement further said that China was expected to elaborate on its initiatives for regional peace and efforts for a sound China-U.S. relationship amid mounting global instability and uncertainty.

(NAN)