The caution by the Chairman of the Southwest Governors’ Forum to the Senior Special Assistant, Media and Publicity to the President, Garba Shehu, to desist from comments that can plunge the country into anarchy is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Wednesday.
The Guardian reports that the Chairman of the Southwest Governors’ Forum and Ondo State Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, yesterday, cautioned the Senior Special Assistant, Media and Publicity to the President, Garba Shehu, to desist from comments that can plunge the country into anarchy.
The Presidency had on Monday faulted the recent resolutions of the Southern Governors, including the ban on open grazing in the entire southern part of the country, adding that the governors’ resolutions failed to provide any solution to the lingering crisis between farmers and herders in the country.
Akeredolu insisted that Shehu, who derided the resolutions of 17 Southern governors meeting in Asaba two weeks ago, had no right to speak for President Muhammadu Buhari and the Presidency on the farmers/herders’ clashes.
The Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Special Duties and Strategy, Dr. Doyin Odebowale, in a statement issued to journalists in Akure yesterday, chided the Presidency’s response titled ‘Deep rooted solutions to the herdsmen attacks.’
Odebowale lamented that the President’s aide and his utterances, alongside other persons in the Presidency, were “self-deluding, mendacious, but potentially a dangerous itinerary to anarchy.
“He works, assiduously, for extraneous interests whose game plan stands at variance with the expectations of genuine lovers of peaceful coexistence among all people, whose ethnic extractions are indigenous to Nigeria.”
The newspaper says that 20 residents of Bauchi State have lost their lives to Cholera while 302 others are receiving treatment in hospitals, the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Aliyu Maigoro, said at a press briefing on Tuesday.
Maigoro explained that nine local councils in the state recorded 322 cases in one month, putting the fatality rate at 6.2 percent.
He said: “The state’s Ministry of Health was notified of a sporadic case of gastroenteritis in Magami Community, Burra Ward of Ningi Local Council by the Area Health Officer in Burra District on the May 11, 2021.
“This followed an increase in the number of cases above normal in the community. The index case was a 37-year-old housewife who presented at Burra General Hospital on April 24, 2021. She complained of abdominal pains, diarrhoea and vomiting. She and others were successfully managed and discharged.”
According to the commissioner, the ministry responded through the Primary Health Care Development Agency (PHCDA) immediately to prevent the spread to other communities, adding that it was discovered that there was an ongoing outbreak of similar diseases in neighbouring Sumaila and other local councils of Kano.
The Vanguard reports that the Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala and Rwandan President, Paul Kagame yesterday called on African leaders to show the political will and embrace increased cooperation to achieve the goals of the African Free Trade Continental Agreement, (AfCFTA), which is necessary for the post pandemic development of the continent.
Speaking at the 3rd annual UBA Africa Day Conversation, alongside, World Health Organisation, Director General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus; and International Finance Corporation, IFC, Managing Director, Makhtar Sop Diop; the two global leaders highlighted the importance of ensuring free movement of goods, services and people across the various African countries as a critical success factor for AfCFTA.
They however noted that this however requires political will on the part of African leaders who have the power to make it happen. With the theme, ‘Bringing Africa to the World’, the event was moderated by the Group Chairman, UBA Plc, Mr. Tony Elumelu with the four global leaders speaking on Africa’s development in the areas of the economy and finance, trade, health and the unity of the continent.
Speaking on measures to fast track recovery and economic growth in the continent, Okonjo-Iweala called for additional fiscal stimulus, including provision of liquidity and credit to the private sector, economic diversification, and successful implementation of the AfCFTA.
She said “”In the short term, on the economic side is to see how we can get more fiscal stimulus into our economy. “That is why it is important the whole discussion we are having on restructuring debt and giving African economy space, fiscal space to breathe so that they can invest, not only on the health side but also on the economy side, this is how we are going to recover.
The Punch says that the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria on Tuesday retained the Monetary Policy Rate at 11.5 percent.
The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, who disclosed this after the committee’s two-day meeting in Abuja also said all other parameters were retained. Announcing the committee’s decision,
Emefiele said, “The committee thus decided by a unanimous vote to retain the Monetary Policy Rate. In summary, the MPC voted to retain the MPR at 11.5 percent; retain the asymmetric corridor of +100/-700 basis points around the MPR; retain the CRR at 27.5 percent; and retain the Liquidity Ratio at 30 percent.”
The CBN governor noted that available output data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that real Gross Domestic Product grew by 0.51 percent in the first quarter of 2021, compared with 0.11 and -3.62 percent in Q4 2020 and Q3 2020, respectively.
He said, “In the view of the MPC, although the economy has succeeded in exiting the recession, the recovery was very fragile, given that the GDP of 0.51 percent was still far below population growth rate.
The Sun reports that the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) yesterday, said it was targeting about $3.7 billion investments under its commercial ventures partnership programme with a view to attracting projects development in-country.
Its Executive Secretary, Mr Simbi Wabote, revealed this at the bi-annual Nigerian Oil & Gas Opportunity Fair (NOGOF) 2021 which is being held virtually for the first time, adding that the Board had committed about $332 million under its commercial ventures partnership programme.
Some of the partnerships undertaken by the Board include the 5,000 barrels per day Waltersmith Modular Refinery at Ibigwe, Imo State and NEDO Gas Processing Company in Kwale, Delta State for the establishment of 80 million standard cubic feet per day (MMscfd) gas processing plant and a 300MMscfd Kwale Gas Gathering hub.
Other investments include the development of 5,000 metric tons LPG Storage and loading terminal facility by Triansel Gas Limited in Koko, Delta Stateand construction of Energy Park, inclusive of a modular refinery, power plant and 40MMscfd gas processing facility at Egbokor, Edo State by Duport Midstream.
ThisDay says that the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, has expressed the urgent need to improve procedures, documentation and regulations in the solid mineral sector.
This, she noted, had become necessary in view of the present global economic challenges occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic as well as volatility of global oil prices which is the country’s main foreign exchange earner.
Ahmed stated this in Abuja while delivering a keynote address at stakeholders’ consultative forum on the draft mineral export guidelines, procedures and documentation requirements.
She explained that the effort to put in place guidelines, procedures and documentation requirements for the solid minerals sector is another of such deliberate federal government policy measure to develop its monumental mining potential and minimising dependence on oil as the nation continues her drive towards a progressively diversified economic base.
GIK/APA