Nigeria: Press zooms in on 366 days of Tinubu’s administration, others

The report that President Bola Tinubu, yesterday assessed his performance in the last 366 days and gave himself a thumbs up, saying his government is walking the talk dominates the headlines of Nigeran newspapers on Thursday.
The Vanguard newspaper reports that President Bola Tinubu, yesterday, assessed his performance in the last 366 days and gave himself a thumbs up, saying his government is walking the talk.
Tinubu, who also hailed Nigerians for 25 years of unbroken democratic rule, urged the citizenry to build a nation for generations unborn.
He, however, warned against risking the nation’s democracy, saying as Nigerians, “we must continue to collaborate, work together and build our country against the backdrop that we do not have another country we can call our own.’’
President Tinubu spoke at a joint sitting of the National Assembly, where he formally flagged off the recitation of the old national anthem, “Nigeria, We Hail Thee.”
He had earlier signed into law the bill dropping the current national anthem, “Arise O Compatriots’’ for ‘’Nigeria, We Hail Thee,’’ that was passed on Tuesday by the Senate and last week by the House of Representatives.
The newspaper says that as part of its effort to promote clean cooking energy for families across the country, the Nigerian Federal Government yesterday commenced the free distribution of gas cylinders with a target of moving at least one million homes to clean cooking gas by 2030.
The programme, which is under the ‘Decade of Gas’ initiative, tagged LPG grassroots penetration, is expected to distribute about 250,000 gas cylinders to women in rural communities across the country.
Speaking at the flag-off of the programme in the Apo Resettlement area of Abuja, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, said the administration was determined to increase domestic gas usage.
Ekpo who supervised the handing over of 1,000 numbers of 3kg cylinders filled with gas to rural women drawn from the six area councils of the Federal Capital Territory, explained that the government’s push for the use of gas as the cooking fuel of choice would improve the health of women and girls who bear the greatest risk in the use of traditional cooking fuel.
He stated: “We’re not only introducing a program today; we’re on a mission to change millions of Nigerians’ lives in our six geographical zones. By 2030, we want to convert 250,000 houses a year to clean cooking gas, which is a lofty but attainable target.
“This program is evidence of our steadfast dedication to lessening the over-reliance on solid fuels, which for a long time served as many households’ primary source of energy and include firewood, kerosene, and charcoal.
In his remarks, the Coordinating Director, ‘Decade of Gas’ program, Mr. Ed Ubong, said the programme which is funded by the private sector would bring an end to the use of woods and kerosene in homes.
He added that the ‘Decade of Gas’ program is in line with President Bola Tinubu’s theme: “Gas to Prosperity, a Renewed Hope”.
He stated: “As part of the LPG grassroots programme, we would be committed to see how we can move over a million cooking cylinders, mainly to women, in rural areas.
The Punch reports that the Nigerian Government has disclosed that it has electrified no fewer than 15 federal universities and teaching hospitals with hybrid solar grids with a combined capacity of 35.5 megawatts.
The Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of the Rural Electrification Agency, Abba Aliyu, stated this at the just-concluded Alliance for Rural Electrification Energy Access Forum in Lagos.
Aliyu disclosed that the aim was to supply 24-hour electricity to 350,000 students while giving 50,000 lecturers access to electricity.
He explained that the Nigeria Electrification Project, funded by the World Bank and the African Development Bank, was a $550m project.
One of the universities, he said, included the University of Maiduguri and its teaching, where a 12MW solar grid was installed.
Others are the University of Abuja; the Federal University, Yobe; the Federal University of Calabar and its teaching hospital; the Nigerian Defence Academy; the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta; the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, and others.
The REA boss maintained that the projects in those academic institutions would be launched by the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, in the next two months.
The newspaper says that Nigeria exported crude oil and gas valued at over $3.8bn to Indonesia in 2023, the Indonesian Ambassador to Nigeria, Dr Usra Harahap, has said.
Harahap disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja during a courtesy visit to the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Nicholas Ella.
At the meeting, he expressed the desire of the Republic of Indonesia to deepen the existing collaboration with Nigeria in the development of the oil and gas sector, according to a statement issued by the petroleum ministry’s Deputy Director, Press and Public Relations, Oluwakemi Ogunmakinwa.
The Indonesian ambassador said Indonesia was exploring ways to sustain its relationship with Nigeria.
He was quoted as saying, “We are looking for ways to maintain and improve a beneficial cooperation and relationship that we have held for the past 59 years.”
The ambassador noted that the oil and gas sector of the economy was of common interest to both countries, adding that his country would want to explore areas of more collaboration with Nigeria in that regard.
The statement read in part, “He (Harahap) noted that Indonesia imported over $3.8bn worth of oil and gas from Nigeria in 2023 and stressed the need for Nigeria and Indonesia to resume discussions on the establishment of a Memorandum of Understanding in the oil and gas sector which had been suspended since 2017.”
GIK/APA