The warning by the Nigeria Labour Congress yesterday that the ongoing fight between the Southern and Northern governors on which zone should produce the next president in 2023 was worsening insecurity in the country and heating up the polity is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Thursday.
The Vanguard reports that the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, said yesterday that the ongoing fight between the Southern and Northern governors on which zone should produce the next president in 2023 was worsening insecurity in the country and heating up the polity.
According to NLC, the fight is an utter disregard for the predicament and sufferings of ordinary Nigerians and workers struggling with pains of broken politics and governance dysfunction in Nigeria.
NLC said it was sad and unfortunate that Nigerian politicians find the time and nerve to discuss 2023 when 2021 presents a foreboding cloud of insecurity, social tension and general despondency manifest in the nation’s empty kitchens, unsafe streets and overflowing Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs camps.
Welcoming guests and participants at the 2021 NLC Roundtable on Social Protection Cover, with the theme, ‘’Expanding Social Protection Cover and Ensuring Effective Implementation in Nigeria,’’ President of NLC, Ayuba Wabba, warned that 2023 must not be used by the political class as an excuse to unleash fresh dimension of intractable security crises in Nigeria.
He said: “I wish to send a note of caution to some members of Nigeria’s political elites who are already overheating the polity on the 2023 general election. A few weeks ago, precisely on July 5, 2021, the Southern Governors Forum met in Lagos and demanded that power must go to the South in 2023.”
The newspaper says that the Senate yesterday asked President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately declare bandits who have been engaging in massive killing, wanton destruction of property and kidnapping across the country as terrorists and declare total war against them.
It also asked President Buhari to ensure there was bombing of all locations of bandits in order to annihilate and eliminate them.
The Upper Chamber equally called on the Federal Government to declare all the known leaderships of the bandits wanted, track them for arrest and prosecution, especially those operating in Sokoto East senatorial district.
It asked the Federal Government to direct the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and other relevant Federal Government agencies to urgently give all the necessary support to the victims of the menace of banditry in Sokoto and other parts of the country.
The Senate observed a minute silence in honour of the fallen heroes and civilians who lost their lives in the unwholesome activities of bandits.
The Guardian reports that lack of adequate funding, poor working environment and low take home pay have been described as responsible for poor performance of the judiciary in Nigeria.
The Guardian gathered that a judge at a South Africa’s labour or high court earns about three times higher than what the Federal Government pays a justice of the Supreme Court. This was contained in a data sourced from relevant authorities of the two regional leaders.
According to South Africa’s new payment schedule for constitutional court judges, which took effect on April 1, 2020, the total emolument of labour and high court judges who are placed on level 5, is R1, 882,486 or $128,060. The amount also triples the total yearly package of a justice at Nigeria’s Supreme Court.
| According to the remuneration package for political, public and judicial office holders, which was last reviewed in 2007, a Supreme Court justice in Nigeria is entitled to a yearly package of N17, 959,047. The amount, which includes yearly leave allowance, furniture allowance payable once in four years and accommodation, translates to $43,589.
A justice in Nigeria is also entitled to a N7,431,330 gratuity payable on successful completion of his tenure. The gratuity is not included in the emolument for this comparison.
The earnings of a judge at a Federal High Court in Nigeria, which is estimated at N13,084,329 ($31,758), is but a quarter of the pay of his South African counterpart.
The President of the Court of Appeal is on the same salary scale as a justice. Hence, s/he also earns about one-third of what a judge at a labour court in the former apartheid nation is entitled to.
An occupant of a position similar to Nigeria’s Court of Appeal President, which is President of the Supreme Court of Appeal goes home with R2, 606,428 or $177,308. S/he is in the same salary bracket as the Deputy Chief Justice with their salary scale slightly lower than the Chief Justice’s R2.9 million ($197,014).
The Sun says that the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has completed the Incorporation of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited in accordance with the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), 2021.
The PIA was signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari on August 16. Specifically, Section 53(1) of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021 requires the Minister of Petroleum Resources to cause for the incorporation of the NNPC Limited within six months of the enactment of the PIA in consultation with the Minister of Finance on the nominal shares of the company.
CAC Registrar General, Alhaji Garba Abubakar, confirmed the incorporation in Abuja while speaking at the quarterly meeting of Heads of Agencies in the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment.
He explained that the registration was completed same day after fulfilling all requirements set for the incorporation of the NNPC Limited.
Abubakar, while updating the gathering on the digitisation of the Trademark and Patent Registry, said that the digitisation was being pursued by the CAC in a bid to ensure synergy and eliminate other possible conflicts. He said that the project was awaiting clearance from NITDA which was studying the statement of requirements submitted to it.
The newspaper reports that with Nigeria’s economy shrinking to its deepest level of 1.8 per cent since 1983 and throwing over 131 Nigerians into poverty with the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic and low oil prices, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) yesterday announced policy options that can help reduce inflation and protect poor households livelihood.
These, according to the Fund, include, increasing the transparency and predictability of exchange rate management policies to reduce distortions in allocations to the private and public sector stakeholders; ensuring that agents can access foreign exchange in a timely and orderly manner at an agreed rate.
Other policy options are that Nigeria should clearly define monetary-policy priorities and objectives, with price stability as the primary goal.
“Resumption of naira-denominated open-market operations (OMOs) based on a transparent issuance schedule, and signal to markets that OMOs will use short-maturity securities to achieve price stability.
“Full and effective reopening of land borders for trade and strengthening regional co-operation to combat smuggling. “Facilitation of imports for staple foods and medicines by removing them from the list of foreign exchange (FX) restrictions and replacing import bans and with tariffs that align with the ECOWAS Common External Tariff.
The Punch 2021 Annual Statistical Bulletin of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries released on Wednesday showed a drop of 543 million barrels in the crude oil reserves of Nigeria. Figures on world proven oil reserves by country as contained in the bulletin indicated that Nigeria’s oil reserves dropped from 37,453 million barrels in 2016 to 36,910 million barrels in 2020.
The Federal Government had repeatedly stated that it was making efforts to grow the country’s oil reserves in a bid to increase Nigeria’s revenue from crude sales. On August 10, 2021,
The PUNCH reported that the target of the Federal Government was to increase Nigeria’s oil reserves from the 36,910 million (36.91 billion) barrels to 50 billion barrels in the short to medium term.
This was disclosed by the Director/Chief Executive, Department of Petroleum Resources, Sarki Auwalu, during a workshop with industry partners.
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GIK/APA
