APA – Lagos (Nigeria)
The report that the Nigerian Government has appealed to former President Olusegun Obasanjo not to truncate the 2023 general election with “his inciting, self-serving and provocative letter on the elections” dominates the headlines of Nigerian newspapers on Tuesday.
The Punch reports that the Federal Government, on Tuesday, appealed to former President Olusegun Obasanjo not to truncate the 2023 general election with “his inciting, self-serving and provocative letter on the elections.”
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in a statement by his media aide, Segun Adeyemi, said the former President’s call that the President Muhammadu Buhari, should prevail on the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Mahmood Yakubu, to stop the election result collation process and rectify the allegations raised against INEC from many quarters was nothing but a calculated attempt to undermine the electoral process.
The PUNCH reports that opposition parties — the Labour Party, and the Peoples Democratic Party, under which Obasanjo led the country from 1999 to 2007— had accused INEC of complicity in alleged malpractices during the polls.
The minister expressed shock and disbelief that a former President could throw around unverified claims and amplify wild allegations picked up from the street against the electoral process.
”Though masquerading as an unbiased and concerned elder statesman, former President Obasanjo is in reality a known partisan who is bent on thwarting, by subterfuge, the choice of millions of Nigerian voters,” he said.
The newspaper says that the total amount of currency-in-circulation in the country dropped from N3.29tn as of the end of October 2022 to N1.38tn as of the end of January 2023 as a result of the naira redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Figures obtained from the CBN showed this represents a drop of N1.91tn in the three-month period.
The Governor, CBN, Godwin Emefiele, had in October 2022, announced plans to redesign the old N200, N500 and N1,000 notes.
Emefiele also announced deadlines for Nigerians to swap their old with the new notes.
The banking sector regulator said, “Accordingly, all Deposit Money Banks currently holding the existing denominations of the currency may begin returning these notes back to the CBN effective immediately. The newly designed currency will be released to the banks in the order of first-come-first-serve basis.
“Customers of banks are enjoined to begin paying into their bank accounts the existing currency to enable them to withdraw the new banknotes once circulation begins.”
The Guardian reports that telecoms operators activated 3.6 million new Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards in January, which has resulted in active telephone lines in the country moving from 222.5 million in December 2022 to 226 million a month after.
With this new development, connected telephone lines in Nigeria are now 322 million with teledensity now 118.5 per cent.
Teledensity is telephone connections per 100 people in a specified geographic area. Teledensity is often used to compare the level of access to voice and data communications services between metropolitan and rural areas, or between one country and another.
Subscription statistics from the Nigerian Communications Commissions (NCC), the January edition, released yesterday, showed that MTN increased its reach by servicing 91.1 million telecoms users with 40.71 per cent penetration; Airtel with 26.81 per cent market coverage, has 60.5 million subscribers.
Globacom is third with 60.3 million customers and 26.71 per cent national reach, while 9mobile maintained its 13 million customers and 5.77 per cent penetration.
Internet coverage showed that on the GSM platforms, 155.6 million are surfing the web, while via the Fixed Wired platform 16, 144; ISP (Wired/Wireless) 204,810 and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) 348,236, which brings the total to 156.22 million.
Broadband coverage showed that Nigeria now has 48.2 per cent penetration with some 92 million Nigerians having access to the service.
MEANWHILE, the number of National Identity Numbers (NINs) issued to Nigerians by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) increased by 1.5 million in February as the figure rose from 95 million in January to 96.5 million one month after.
In the new data, 54.6 million (56.5 per cent) males and 41.9 million females, which is 43.5 per cent.
The highest cumulative enrolment figure of over 10.63 million was recorded in Lagos State. Kano is next with 8.4 million; Kaduna 5.7 million; Ogun 4.1 million; Oyo 3.8 million and Abuja 3.3 million.
Others are Katsina 3.3 million; Rivers 2.9 million; Bauchi 2.6 million and Delta 2.58 million. The bottom 10 states are Kogi 1.67 million; Akwa Ibom 1.65 million; Imo 1.62 million; Enugu 1.55 million; Yobe 1.46 million. Others are Taraba 1.42 million; Cross-River 1.10 million; Ekiti 990,463; Ebonyi 774,263 and Bayelsa 611,229.
According to NIMC, diaspora issuance is now 366, 164 with 156, 651 females and 209, 513 males.
The newspaper says that the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has warned broadcasters covering and reporting the 2023 elections against violating the provision of the extant electoral laws and Broadcasting Code.
The Director-General of NBC, Malam Balarabe Ilelah, issued the warning in a statement on Monday in Abuja.
Ilelah said that the commission had observed that some guests on broadcast stations were making volatile allusions capable of causing unrest in the country.
He, therefore, enjoined all broadcasters to desist from using or allowing their platforms and facilities to be used for the broadcast of content that may lead to the breakdown of law and order.
The NBC boss also warned that appropriate sanctions would be meted out to any erring station that operates outside the confines of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code.
He said: “The NBC reminds all broadcasters covering and reporting the 2023 General Elections to endeavour to abide by the provisions of the Extant Electoral Law(s), the Nigeria Broadcasting Code, and other relevant regulations guiding the broadcast of elections in Nigeria.”
GIK/APA
Press focuses on appeal to Obasanjo not to truncate 2023 general elections, others
