Nigerian press spotlights suspension of strike for 30 days by NLC, others

APA – Lagos (Nigeria)
The report that the Organised Labour agreed to suspend its proposed nationwide strike for 30 days and that the Nigerian Government may incur additional N315bn in wage bill in the next six months for the newly introduced allowance for federal workers dominates the headlines of Nigerian newspapers on Tuesday.
The Punch reports that the Federal Government may incur additional N315bn in wage bill in the next six months for the newly introduced allowance for federal workers, findings by The PUNCH have shown.
This came as Organised Labour agreed to suspend its proposed nationwide strike for 30 days, following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Federal Government after a marathon meeting that ended around 11pm on Tuesday.
The resolution followed over five hours of deliberations between the Federal Government and Labour at the Chief of Staff Conference Room of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Announcing the outcome of the meeting to State House correspondents, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Simon Lalong, said “The NLC and TUC accept to suspend for 30 days the planned Indefinite Nationwide strike scheduled to begin, Tuesday, the 3rd of October, 2023.”
Lalong said the memorandum shall be filed with the relevant court of competent jurisdiction within one week as consent judgment by the Federal Government.
However, the NLC President, Joe Ajaero, said the unions would revisit the agreement if the FG failed to fulfil their demands.
According to the agreement, the Federal Government grants a wage award of N35,000 only to all Federal Government workers “beginning from the month of September pending when a new national minimum wage is expected to have been signed into law.”
The newspaper says that Chicago State University, United States of America has released to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar the academic records of President Bola Tinubu.
The CSU released the documents to Atiku on Monday in compliance with the order of a United States District Court in Northern District of Illinois.
In ordering the CSU to release Tinubu’s academic record, a US district judge dismissed the President’s objection.
The judge ruled: “For the foregoing reasons, the court overrules President Tinubu’s objections to Magistrate Judge Gilbert’s recommended ruling, and therefore, adopts the ruling in full.
“Mr Atiku’s Application is, therefore, granted. In light of the pending Supreme Court of Nigeria deadline, represented to the court as October 5, 2023, and based on CSU’s representations that it is ready to comply with the discovery requests and produce a witness, the court sets an expedited schedule for completion of discovery.
“Respondent CSU is directed to produce all relevant and non-privileged documents in response to Requests for Production Nos. The Rule 30(b)(6) deposition of CSU’s corporate designee must be completed by 5:00 p.m. CDT on Tuesday, October 3, 2023. Given the October 5, 2023, filing deadline before the Supreme Court of Nigeria, the court will not extend or modify these deadlines.”
In the CSU documents, which went viral late Monday night, the institution responded to Atiku’s four requests.
Responding to Atiku’s request for “A true and correct copy of any diploma issued by CSU in 1979 to Mr Tinubu,” the US varsity said: “CSU does not, in the ordinary course, keep copies of student diplomas, and after the diligent search cannot locate a copy of the original diploma it prepared for Mr Tinubu in 1979, hence, has no documents responsive to this request.”
The Guardian reports that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its Food Price Watch report released yesterday, indicated a continuous increase in food prices in August, detailing how the prices of beef, tomatoes, beans, garri, yam and other food items increased for the month.
The report stated that while the average price of 1kg of boneless beef was N2,141.18 in August 2022, it increased by 30.75 per cent to N2,799.51 in August 2023.
It added that the average price of 1kg of local rice increased by 62.68 per cent on a year-on-year basis, from N454.10 in August 2022 to N738.74 in August 2023.
On a month-on-month basis, 1kg of local rice increased by 13.04 per cent from the N653.49 recorded in July 2023.
It stated that the average price of 1kg of brown beans increased by 27 per cent on a year-on-year basis from N545.61 in August 2022 to N692.95 in August 2023.
The report added that the average price of 1kg of yam tuber increased by 42.80 per cent on a year-on-year basis from N403.65 in August 2022 to N576.39 in August 2023.
Meanwhile, the Managing Director of Bullion Go-Neat Global Limited, Olufemi Ajadi, has urged the Federal Government to check inflation in the country as a way of making life more meaningful for the masses. Ajadi gave the advice in a statement while delivering an Independence Day anniversary appeal to the Federal Government.
He observed that inflationary pressures in the economy, coupled with high cost of foreign exchange, multiple taxation and poor infrastructure were contributing to the high cost of living and also making it difficult for entrepreneurship to thrive in the country.
The newspaper says that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has said it obtained an arrest warrant against former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke.
The commission, however, did not give details of the court from which it got the warrant.
Acting spokesman, Dele Oyewale, in a statement in Abuja, yesterday, said the anti-graft agency had initiated extradition proceedings, adding that Diezani would soon have her day in Nigerian courts.
This came as a court in the United Kingdom (UK) granted Diezani bail in the sum of £70,000.
Diezani, who currently lives in St John’s Wood, London, appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court, yesterday, after being charged with bribery offences amounting to £100,000, following a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation.
District Judge, Michael Snow, granted her bail but imposed other conditions on her after considering her ‘a flight risk’.
The NCA suspects Alison-Madueke, 63, accepted bribes during her time as minister for petroleum resources in exchange for awarding multimillion-pound oil and gas contracts.
Assets worth millions of pounds relating to the alleged offences have already been frozen as part of the ongoing investigation.
In March of this year, the NCA also provided evidence to the U.S. Department of Justice that enabled them to recover assets totaling $53.1 million linked to Alison-Madueke’s alleged corruption.
She is alleged to have benefited from, at least, £100,000 in cash, chauffeur-driven cars, flights on private jets, luxury holidays for her family, and the use of multiple London properties.
Alison-Madueke was arrested in London in 2015, shortly after stepping down as minister, and was charged in August with six bribery offences.
She has spent the past eight years on police bail, living in St John’s Wood, an expensive area of London.
The charges against her, read out in court, all related to events alleged to have taken place in London.
GIK/APA