APA – Lagos (Nigeria)
The report that the United States of America (USA) yesterday, announced it placed visa restrictions on some Nigerians who undermined the 2023 elections, held in February and March dominates the headlines of Nigerian newspapers on Tuesday.
The Guardian reports that the United States of America (USA), yesterday, announced it placed visa restrictions on some Nigerians who undermined the 2023 elections, held in February and March.
Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, made the disclosure in a statement.
Clarifying scope of the sanctions, Blinken affirmed: “The United States is committed to supporting and advancing democracy in Nigeria and around the world.
“Today, I am announcing that we have taken steps to impose visa restrictions on specific individuals in Nigeria for undermining the democratic process during Nigeria’s 2023 elections cycle.
“These actions are specific to certain individuals and are not directed at the Nigerian people or the Government of Nigeria as a whole.”
He noted: “Under Section 212(a)(3)C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, these individuals will be subject to restrictions on visas to the United States under a policy covering those believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, undermining democracy. These individuals have been involved in intimidation of voters through threats and physical violence, the manipulation of vote results, and other activity that undermines Nigeria’s democratic process.
“The decision to take steps to impose visa restrictions reflects the continued commitment of the United States to support Nigerian aspirations to strengthen democracy and the rule of law.”
The U.S. had repeatedly warned of strict punitive measures against offenders of the electoral process in Nigeria.
The newspaper says that less than two weeks to the end of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, the failure of the much-hyped Nigeria-Germany electricity deal, expected to be implemented by Siemens, re-echoed yesterday, even as the national grid collapsed again, throwing the nation into darkness.
Yesterday’s failure marked the 99th time the grid would crash under Buhari’s two-term administration. He had promised to raise the power performance level to 10,000 megawatts (MW) at the close of his first term in 2019.
But four years after the end of the goalpost, performance is still kneecapped by poor transmission and other challenges to less than 50 per cent of what he promised.
The power supply fell to about 221 megawatts (MW), throwing almost the entire country into darkness.
At about 10:57 am yesterday, the grid, which has collapsed over 130 times since the sector was privatised, went down again, plunging many parts of the country into darkness.
The collapse was reportedly caused by a breaker issue at Shiroro plant, as some distribution companies have reported that their feeders were out of supply due to the development.
The Guardian’s search showed that as at 12 pm, only 221MW, out of the over 4,500MW, which is usually on the grid, was available. Of the over 16 active plants in the country, only three were on the grid at the time, Omotosho was on the grid with 132.90MW, Omotosho NIPP was also on the grid with 78MW while Rivers IPP was on the grid with a generation of 10MW.
Since the electricity sector was privatised in 2013, Nigeria’s Osogbo-based national grid has failed electricity consumers more than 134 times.
According to data sourced from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), grid collapses in 2015 were 10. That rose to 28 in 2016 while 21 cases were recorded in 2017. NERC listed the cases in 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 as 13, 11, four and four. Last year, the grid failed seven times among others that were not captured by the Commission.
The Punch reports that the military and the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, on Monday read the Riot Act to individuals and groups opposed to the inauguration of the President-elect, Bola Tinubu on May 29.
The Director of Defence Information, Brigadier General Tukur Gusau, re-echoed the military warning to dissident groups that any threats to the transition programme and by extension to democracy in the country would be crushed.
The Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Faruk Yahaya, had earlier threatened to crack down on potential threats to national security and warned troublemakers not to test the will of the military.
Gusau, while responding to inquiries from The PUNCH on the threats to the inauguration, explained that the military stood by the warning it earlier issued to groups calling for an interim government.
Asked if the military was ready to neutralize threats to the inauguration ceremony, he simply answered, ‘’Yes,’’ adding that the preparation for the event was ongoing.
“We are already doing our rehearsals for the march past parade,’’ he noted.
Addressing journalists at a press briefing at the Force Headquarters, Louis Edet House, Abuja, the IG said the police and other security agencies are ready to deal with aggrieved political actors and their supporters plotting to scuttle the swearing-in programme.
The Defence headquarters and the police handed down the warning on Monday as a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja fixed Thursday for hearing of a suit seeking to stop the inauguration of the former Lagos State governor.
Justice Inyang Ekwo on Monday asked the five applicants who sued on behalf of the Federal Capital Territory residents and voters to convince the court of their locus standi, jurisdiction and whether there is a similar matter before the presidential elections court.
The newspaper says that Nigeria’s inflation rate increased for the fourth consecutive month this year to 22.22 per cent in April from the 22.04 per cent recorded in March.
This is according to the Commodity Price Index report published on Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics.
The April 2023 inflation rate showed an increase of 0.18 percentage points when compared to the March 2023 headline inflation rate.
Similarly, on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 5.40 percentage points higher compared to the rate recorded in April 2022, which was 16.82 per cent.
According to the NBS, the percentage change in the average Commodity Price Index for the twelve months ending April 2023 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve months was 20.82 per cent, showing a 4.37 per cent increase compared to the 16.45 per cent recorded in April 2022.
The data also showed that key sectors that drove up inflation figures in June were food and alcoholic beverages, housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuel, clothing and footwear, and housing.
The upward surge sees inflation increase for the fourth consecutive month after slowing to 21.34 per cent in December 2022.
The upward trend began with a spike to 21.82 in January 2023. Another increase to 21.91 followed in February while March saw inflation cross the 22 per cent mark to 22.04 percent.
The figures also mean that the President, Major Gen Muhammadu Buhari, will be leaving office with as the president leaving behind the highest inflation rate since the return of democracy in 1999.
GIK/APA