The assertion by Nigerian President Bola Tinubu that the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway will give 30 million people improved access to production and marketing centres is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Monday.
The Punch reports that the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu, has said the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway will give 30 million people improved access to production and marketing centres.
Tinubu disclosed this in his remarks on Sunday in Lagos during the flag-off of the 700km Lagos-Calabar highway project and several others to commemorate his first year in office.
He said, “On the next 10 benefits of the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway; during the period of construction, the road will provide direct employment for thousands of people, and indirect employment for tens of thousands of politicians and more. Economic opportunity for millions is being opened.
“It will fast-track the community’s development, It will bring development closer to the people, and give 30 million people improved access to production and marketing centres. You can easily predict a journey, vertically and go along the horizontal line and do the definition of free movement of people.”
In March, the Federal Government started constructing the highway, designed to extend through nine states with two spurs leading to the northern states.
The project, which necessitated the demolition of some buildings, faced significant criticism and interrogation from Nigerians and the National Assembly who believed the timing was inappropriate.
The newspaper says that international consumers failed to remit about $51.26m to Nigeria for electricity exported from Nigeria to the power users in 2023, the Federal Government revealed in the latest industry data showing the non-remittances by the consumers.
Also, another group of customers categorised as bilateral power consumers did not remit about N7.61bn to the Nigerian power sector in 2023.
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission condemned the development, describing it as a payment indiscipline that must be curtailed by the Market Operator, an arm of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, which is the firm in charge of Nigeria’s power export.
An analysis of the government’s industry data indicated that the international consumers failed to remit $16.11m, $11.97m, $11.16m, and $12.02m to Nigeria for the electricity exported to them in the first, second, third, and fourth quarters of 2023 respectively.
Similarly, bilateral consumers did not pay N827m, N2.03bn, N2.8bn, and N1.95bn to the Nigerian government for electricity sold to them in the first, second, third, and fourth quarters of last year.
Nigeria lacks adequate power to meet the electricity demand of citizens in the country. But industry players explained that the country exports electricity based on strategic agreements with neighbouring countries such as Niger, Togo, Benin, among others.
The Guardian newspaper reports that the former Nigerian President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, yesterday tackled President Bola Tinubu’s administration‘s poor handling of fuel subsidy removal, flotation of the naira and the military coup in Niger Republic.
He said though subsidy removal and the government’s forex policy were desirable, they were poorly handled by the government.
The former president observed at a colloquium,” Nigeria’s Development: Navigating the Way Out of the Current Economic Crisis and Insecurity” delivered at the Paul Aje Colloquium, tPAC, in Abuja at the weekend.
However, efforts made to get reactions from the President’s Media office were unsuccessful but a Presidency source simply said: “It is his personal opinion, he is entitled to that but we don’t want to reply to him.”
But Obasanjo also took a swipe at those against his position on the much-touted refurbished refinery in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, describing them as “sycophants and spin doctors”.
He declared that such people failed to remember that the attempt made in 2007 to partly privatise the refineries was made him, after a thorough study of the situation, hence his knowledge and better understanding of the situation before making his decision late last year.
On what could be described as his position on 365 days of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration, the former president also spoke on ways out of the situation in the country, including a 25-year development agenda.
He said: “Today, the government has taken three decisions, two of which are necessary but wrongly implemented and have led to impoverishment of the economy and Nigerians. These are the removal of subsidies, closing the gap between the black market and official rates of exchange and the third is dealing with the military coup in Niger Republic.
“The way forward is production and productivity which belief and trust in government leadership will engender. No shortcut to economic progress but hard work and sweat.
“Economy does not obey orders, not even military orders. I know that. If we get it right, we will begin to see the light beyond the tunnel in two years. It requires a change of characteristics, attributes and attitudes by the leadership at all levels to gain the confidence and trust of investors who have alternatives.
The newspaper says that the Nigerian Federal Government has instituted a legal action against governors of the 36 states of the federation at the Supreme Court over alleged misconduct in the administration of local government areas.
The suit marked: SC/CV/343/2024, which was filed by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, is seeking full autonomy for all LGAs in the country as the third tier of government.
It specifically prayed the apex court to issue an order prohibiting state governors from embarking on unilateral, arbitrary and unlawful dissolution of democratically elected local government leaders.
The government also prayed for an order permitting the funds standing in the credits of local governments to be directly channelled to them from the federation account, in line with the provisions of the constitution, against the alleged unlawful joint accounts created by governors.
Besides, the Federal Government prayed to the Supreme Court for an order stopping governors from further constituting caretaker committees to run the affairs of local governments, against the constitutionally recognized and guaranteed democratic system.
It equally applied for an order of injunction, restraining the governors, their agents and privies from receiving, spending or tampering with funds released from the federation account for the benefit of local governments when no democratically elected local government system was put in place in the states.
Governors of the 36 States were sued through their respective Attorneys General.
In the 27 grounds it listed in support of the suit, the federal government argued that Nigeria, as a federation, was a creation of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, with the President, as head of the federal executive arm, swearing on oath to uphold and give effects to provisions of the constitution.
GIK/APA