The World Bank statement that the international financial architecture is ‘skewed in favor of rich and creditor countries and the unveiling of a new security outfit codenamed Ebube Agu by the governors of the South-eastern states of Nigeria are some of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Monday.
The Nation reports that the international financial architecture is ‘skewed in favor of rich and creditor countries’, the World Bank said yesterday.
The President of the bank, David Malpass exposed the partial state of the architecture at the close of the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings 2021 Development Committee meeting, in Washington D.C. yesterday.
He said the disturbing state of the global financial system was exposed last year by the COVID-19 pandemic, which made challenges and staggering needs of every country’s economy even clearer.
Malpass said: “One major challenge is that the current international financial architecture is heavily skewed in favor of the rich and creditor countries. It is ever important that all voices are heard. I urge all of us to consider how we can restore growth in developing countries and help reverse the growing inequality, in terms of access to vaccinations, unsustainable debt, and adverse climate impacts.”
According to him, the bank is developing a better line of sight forward, and the collective efforts to poverty, climate change, and inequality will be the defining choices of this age.
The newspaper says the participants in the Federal Government’s Special Public Works (SPW) programme are protesting the delay in paying their stipend more than three months after kick off.
The SPW is an adhoc programme designed by the government to provide stop-gap three months jobs to mainly artisans to earn N20,000 monthly doing public works.
One thousand youths were hired from each of the 774 local government in the country as beneficiaries, bringing the figure to 774,000 councils.
The programme was inaugurated on January 5. The first batch of beneficiaries have completed their assignment without being paid.
President Muhammadu Buhari on March 20 directed the release of funds to pay the stipends.
Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Mr. Festus Keyamo, hours after, directed the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), the Federal Government agency driving the programme, to start processing the payment plan.
The Guardian reports that after some pussyfooting, the governors of the five Southeast states of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo yesterday decided to take their destinies in their hands and address the fast-deteriorating security situation in the region with the unveiling of a new security outfit codenamed Ebube Agu.
Ebube Agu, meaning fear of a lion in Ibo, is fashioned after the Southwest security outfit, Amotekun, launched early last year amidst furore from the security institutions. Ebube Agu, with its headquarters in Enugu, is charged with the responsibility to coordinate all the activities of vigilantes in the Southeast, and to checkmate rising unrest in the region.
Last week, security facilities were brazenly attacked within four days in Imo. Gunmen yesterday morning abducted a Catholic priest at Ihube in Okigwe Local Government Area of Imo State along Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway. This is coming a week after an Imo monarch was abducted alongside his five cabinet chiefs and two palace guards.
At least, no fewer than 67 security agents, comprising the police, navy and prison wardens, have been killed by gunmen in the Southeast and South-South since December last year.
Also, about 25 police stations were also burnt in the renewed orgy of violence that followed the #EndSARS protest across the nation last year. Of this figure, 62 are policemen, four Naval personnel, while the other person was a prison warden killed while taking some suspects to court in Awka, Anambra, last month.
The Southeast governors and heads of security agencies in the region in a communiqué issued after the first South-East security summit held in Owerri, Imo State capital yesterday agreed to maintain the joint security outfit. The meeting also agreed on a ban on open grazing with the implementation to be carried out by security agencies.
The Punch says that Nigeria’s debt profile has been on the increase because of the impact of revenue crash and the crises trailing the coronavirus pandemic on the economy, the Debt Management Office has said.
However, some economists and experts have warned of the dangers of continued borrowing from the Central Bank of Nigeria by the Federal Government.
Obaseki reportedly stated on Thursday that Nigeria was in huge financial trouble, alleging that the Federal Government printed N60bn in March as part of federal allocation last month.
The Edo governor also expressed worry over the country’s increased borrowing, saying it was wrong to continue borrowing without a tangible plan for debt repayment.
In a reply to an enquiry from one of our correspondents, the Director-General of DMO, Patience Oniha, blamed crashed revenue and COVID-19 for increased borrowing.
The DMO boss noted that apart from the Federal Government, the states are also borrowing increasingly too. Statistics obtained from the DMO showed that the country borrowed N5.52tn in 2020.
The newspaper says that electricity generation in the country fell below the 4,000 megawatts mark on Sunday as 11 plants were idle, even as several others suffered declines in the output.
Total power generation fell to 3,922.2MW as of 6am on Sunday from 4,394MW on Saturday, according to data obtained from the Nigerian Electricity System Operator.
Eleven of the power plants on the national grid did not generate any megawatts of electricity as of 6am on Sunday.
The idle plants included six of those built under the National Integrated Power Project, namely Geregu II, Sapele II, Olorunsogo, Omotosho, Ihovbor, and Gbarain.
The others were Afam IV&V, Ibom Power, AES, ASCO and Egbin ST6. The data showed that generation capacity of 2,830.7MW could not be utilised as of 6am on Sunday as a result of gas constraints, low load demand by the distribution companies and water management.
Two of the nation’s Discos, Ikeja Electric and Eko Electricity Distribution Company, recently attributed the drop in power supply in Lagos to a shortage in the allocation received from the national grid.
GIK/APA