APA – Lagos (Nigeria)
The report that president-elect, Bola Tinubu, has extended an olive branch to his opponents, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party and his Labour Party counterpart, Peter Obi, after the contentious presidential election in which he was declared the winner on Wednesday is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Thursday.
The Punch reports that President-elect, Bola Tinubu, has extended an olive branch to his opponents, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party and his Labour Party counterpart, Peter Obi, after the contentious presidential election in which he was declared the winner on Wednesday.
Tinubu said political competition must now give way to conciliation and inclusive governance.
The Independent National Electoral Commission declared the former senator the winner of the election after he polled 8,794,726 votes.
The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, announced Tinubu as the winner at the International Collation Centre in Abuja during the early hours of Wednesday.
But the PDP, LP and the New Nigeria Peoples Party agents walked out of the hall and refused to sign the election results sheet of the presidential election.
They rejected the declaration of Tinubu as president-elect after accusing the INEC of compromise, insisting that the election should be cancelled, and a fresh poll conducted.
The commission later presented the certificates of return to Tinubu and the vice president-elect, Kashim Shettima around 4pm.
Tinubu, together with Shettima, is expected to be sworn in as the President and Vice-President of Nigeria on May 29, 2023.
The newspaper says that total assets of the banking industry grew by N14.36tn or 24.24 per cent from N59.24tn at the end of December 2021 to N73.59tn in the corresponding period of 2022.
The Central Bank of Nigeria disclosed this in the personal statement made by the Deputy Governor, Financial System Stability Directorate, CBN, Aishah Ahmad, at the last Monetary Policy Committee meeting.
She said, “Key industry aggregates also continued their year-on-year upward trajectory with total assets rising to N73.59tn in December 2022 from N59.24tn in December 2021, while total deposits rose to N45.50tn from N38.42tn over the same period.
“Total credit also increased by N5.14tn between end December 2021 and end-December 2022 with significant growth in credit to manufacturing, general commerce and oil & gas sectors. This impressive increase was achieved amid continued decline in non-performing loans ratio from 4.90 per cent in December 2021 to 4.20 per cent in December 2022.”
According to her, the financial system had provided significant support for needed domestic economic resilience amid global shocks and remained strong into 2023.
Data provided by Bank staff, she said, indicated stability in broad soundness indicators and an unprecedented improvement in asset quality, even as credit to the private sector continued to grow.
She noted that the capital adequacy as of December 2022 was robust at 13.83 per cent, 383 basis points above the regulatory minimum of 10 per cent.
The Guardian reports that Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) has deplored what it termed seeming infractions and non-adherence to laid down rules during the just-concluded presidential election. In a statement, it noted that electoral processes world over are governed by laws and rules pre-defined before commencement of electioneering.
The body said the credibility of any election is based on level of compliance with laid-down rules and procedures. It lamented that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) repeatedly gave assurances of preparedness to conduct free, fair, credible and transparent elections, yet delivered shabbily.
TUC noted that Nigerians were further buoyed by passage of the Electoral Act 2022 (as amended) that specified electronic transmission of results. It recalled that in the buildup to this year’s general elections, INEC defined in its guidelines that election results would be uploaded from the polling units directly to the Result Viewing Portal (IReV), using the Bi-Modal Voter Accreditation System (BIVAS) machine in deference to provisions of the Electoral Act.
However, the labour centre regretted that all of this was not done, neither was any concrete explanation offered by the electoral umpire until almost 48 hours conclusion of election when a press statement was issued.
The statement reads: “This is not acceptable as it has dented the credibility of the results being announced in different parts of the country, as the citizens and stakeholders cannot independently authenticate them.
“The Nigerian populace hailed the introduction of BVAS and IReV as game changers.
“Despite all the sacrifices made by ordinary Nigerians to queue for their PVCs, cast their votes and the billions of taxpayers’ money budgeted for conduct of this election, INEC failed in meeting expectations of Nigerians.
“This failure on the part of INEC to upload results from polling units to the IReV portal climaxed an election that was challenged by late arrival of personnel and materials in some areas, by-pass of BIVAS in some cases, suppression of results and outright voters’ intimidation and coercion in many instances. ”
“Congress believes in a democratic electoral process, which has been proven to be far better than autocracy, dictatorship, totalitarianism and all other extreme forms of governance in societies.
“We hereby call on the National Chairman of INEC to immediately direct all original polling unit results to be uploaded through the BVAS to IReV Portal.”
IN a related development, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), yesterday, commended the newly elected federal lawmakers on platform of Labour Party (LP), saying that their emergence would give fillip to anti-labour bills.
NLC President, Comrade Joe Ajaero, shared the optimism during a working visit to Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals (ANAP) at the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) office in Lagos. He said even as the party did not win the presidential election, having some of its members to represent workers at the National Assembly was one of its greatest achievements.
According to Ajaero, deliberations on the floor of both chambers of the National Assembly will be robust, as the candidates will contribute to improve welfare of the masses.
“We score the LP high. It has performed creditably well. They have come up to be the voice of the masses. Even in the National assembly tomorrow, when they come up with anti-labour issues, we now have voices that can speak for us, they can stop any anti-labour bills. We are going to engage them to give them our charter of demands, while we do our union job,” he said.
The newspaper says that as the G20 opened today in New Delhi, India, Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, has tasked India Prime Minister, Narendra D. Modi with visa on arrival for Nigerians.
Onyeama who was participating in the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting hosted by India between March 1 and 2, also urged India to fast-track the Issuance of
Business Visa to Nigerians as a reciprocal gesture.
The statement signed Wednesday by the Special Assistant, Media to the Minister, Sarah Sanda, held that the meeting focused on strengthening multilateralism as well as deepening cooperation on food and energy security, sustainable development and counter-narcotics.
Others are global health, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, gender equality as well as women empowerment.
Ahead of the G-20 Meeting, Minister Onyeama was said to have met with the Indian Minister of External Affairs, Dr S. Jaishanker and conveyed President Muhammadu Buhari’s appreciation to the Prime Minister of India for the invitation extended to Nigeria to participate in the G-20 meeting.
“He also requested the granting of visa on arrival to Nigerians as a reciprocal gesture”, the statement read in part.
While paying tribute to the blossoming bilateral relations between Nigeria and India, Onyeama stressed the need to further strengthen the economic, trade, and investment cooperations for the mutual benefit of both countries.
The Minister acknowledged continued cooperation in the area of education and welcomed direct air flights between the two countries.
GIK/APA
Press zooms in on president-elect wooing Atiku, Obi as parties reject result
