The demand for restructuring the country by the governors and other leaders of the South-South geo-political zone and the plan to reopen Nigerian land borders soon are some of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Wednesday.
ThisDay reports that the South-south governors and other stakeholders from the geopolitical zone yesterday in Port Harcourt met with a presidential delegation led by the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, and demanded restructuring of the country to ensure “true federalism” and guarantee peace, security and stability of the country.
They also demanded the relocation of the headquarters of all subsidiaries of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to the region.
Calling for the revitalisation of the region’s Calabar, Port Harcourt and Warri ports, they also demanded the immediate privatisation of the nation’s refineries to make them functional and boost the economy of the region.
The South-South leaders stated that the country was not at peace with itself and not working as it should, particularly, for the people of the South-South region.
The Chairman of the South-south Governors Forum and Delta State Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, presented the position of the zone during its stakeholders’ meeting with the presidential delegation.
The Sun says that the Nigerian Government yesterday gave an indication of reopening Nigerian borders which were closed since August last year.
The Minister of Finance Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed, who disclosed this during a roundtable discussion at the 26th Nigerian Economic Summit (NES #26), said that a committee set up by President Muhammadu Buhari had done an assessment of the gains of the closure and had recommended to the president to reopen the borders.
In view of the recommendation, she was optimistic that the president would act on the recommendation soon.
Although, the minister did not give the date of the reopening, she, however, gave assurance that the borders would be reopened soon.
“We have made an assessment. The president set up a committee and we have made an assessment and all the members of the committee agreed and are recommending to the president that it is time to reopen the borders.
The newspaper reports that the Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Danbatta, has charged media professionals to utilise their platforms to change the negative falsehoods and misinformation peddled about the health and safety implications of deploying 5G technology.
Danbatta stated this during the capacity building training for members of Nigeria Information Technology Reporters Association (NITRA) in Lagos last weekend.
Represented by Dr. Ike Adinde, director, Public Affairs, NCC, Danbatta stated that the misrepresentation of 5G technology had the potential of derailing the launch of the technology in the country.
According to him, “Many Nigerians, including citizens in more civilized countries, were hooked on the notion that the introduction of 5G technology was the reason behind the spread of the novel COVID-19 pandemic.
“This misconception was even made worse because those saddled with the responsibility of informing, educating and enlightening the average Nigerian telecom consumers were also bereft of the knowledge of this new technology and hitched a ride on the band wagon of doubters. “This is the reason why training such as this is necessary for members of NITRA who have continued to cover the ICT industry in Nigeria.
The Punch says that hard times have hit poultry farmers in the country as many of them are in financial distress and are unable to feed their birds due to the high cost of poultry feeds.
Investigations revealed that many of them are selling off their birds at ridiculously low prices in a bid to recoup some of their investments.
It was gathered there had been a shortage of soybean and maize, which is a major raw material for poultry feed in the country.
This, according to stakeholders, has led to increase in the price of soybean by as much as 193 per cent and maize by 89 percent.
The farmers said the glut during the lockdown adversely affected their finances and ability to sustain the business. Investigation showed that demand for day old chick has drastically dropped despite a crash in price from N600 per chick to N200.
About 20% of Ogun poultry farmers shut farms The Chairperson of the Poultry Association of Nigeria, Ogun State Chapter, Blessing Alawode, said many poultry farmers in the state had shut down their farms as a result of the high cost of feed.
The newspaper reports that explosions have damaged oil and gas facilities belonging to the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria and the Nigerian Agip Oil Company around Ikarama in the Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.
It was gathered that the blasts may have resulted from attacks on the oil facilities by unknown persons on Monday.
A youth leader in the community, Ben Warder, said residents heard loud sounds from the affected oilfields and were very afraid to go near the impacted area.
“The site is not far from Ikarama. We heard sounds from the blasts and it sounded like dynamites”, Warder said. “It was not safe to go near. So, when the situation became quiet, we had to trace what happened and it turned out that Shell’s gas pipeline and Agip’s crude lines were destroyed.
“The incident resulted in air pollution from the gas pipeline and crude leak which members of the affected communities are battling to cope with,” he stated.
A spokesperson for the SPDC, Michael Adande, confirmed the incident, saying the impacted facility had been shut down to curtail further damage. He said, “We have report of an interference on our pipeline about one kilometre from Ikarama community in Bayelsa State.
GIK/APA