The plan by more than a million Nigerian women from different walks of life to protest today against rejected gender bills in the National Assembly and the denial of citizenship to the foreign-born husband of a Nigerian woman among others dominate the headlines of Nigerian newspapers on Tuesday.
The Guardian reports that more than a million Nigerian women from different walks of life will be out today to protest against rejected gender bills in the National Assembly.
They will also be protesting against the denial of citizenship to the foreign-born husband of a Nigerian woman, women’s inability to take indigeneship of their husband’s state after five years of being together, denial of 35 per cent appointed positions, party administration and leadership, as well as, rejection of specific seats for women in the National Assembly.
Gender equality, parity and end to discrimination against women will equally take the centre stage as they join their counterparts across the world to celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day (IWD).
Celebrated every March 8, IWD is a day set aside to celebrate women globally. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. It was first celebrated by the United Nations in 1975.
In December 1977, the General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming a United Nations Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace to be observed on any day of the year by member states, in accordance with their historical and national traditions.
Harsh tagged #breakingthebias, this year’s IWD is themed, “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow.”
The Nation says that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has assisted Nigeria with a total of $6.8 billion in emergency support to cushion the effect of the Corona virus pandemic in 2020 and 2021, IMF Country Representative in Nigeria, Ari Aisen, has said.
Aisen, who spoke at the American Business Council Economic Update where experts explored opportunities and imperatives for businesses in Nigeria. said, “because of the pandemic, IMF has extended emergency assistance of $3.4 billion dollars in 2020. In 2021 also, because of the pandemic there was an Special Drawing Right (SDR) allocation of $3.4 billion.
It is an additional resource to boost international reserves of the country, so in two years, $6.8 billion was deployed in emergency support for Nigeria.
“That was very helpful together with the policies to contain the negative impact of these huge shock; which was the pandemic, on the Nigerian economy, on the availability of imported goods, on salaries of public servants and on health package that the Ministry of Finance was able to put in place in 2020 when the pandemic hit.
The Punch reports that members of the Host Communities Producing Oil and Gas are kicking against identified loopholes in the Petroleum Industry Act and are calling on the Senate to effect necessary modifications in the Act.
This was disclosed in a memorandum signed by the National President, HOSTCOM, Dr Benjamin Tamaranebi, and filed with the Senate Joint Committee on Petroleum Industry’s public hearing on the 2021 PIA (amendment) Bill.
The memo was sighted by our correspondent on Monday. The memo noted that HOSTCOM members were not included in the inauguration of the steering committee and the appointment of the various governing boards of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission, and Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority.
It stated that no attention was paid to the concerns impacting host communities. It raised concerns about the isolation of the host villages, who are meant to be the first key stakeholders.
The memo read in part, “We propose that Section 11(2) be revised to read: ‘The Board of the commission shall consist of one non-executive chairman, two non-executive commissioners, and the commission’s chief executive officer (referred to as ‘the Commission chief executive’ throughout this Act).’
The newspaper says that the NNPC’s Group Managing Director, Mele Kyari, disclosed this when he led the management team of the oil company on a courtesy visit to the Bureau of Public Enterprises in Abuja, according to a statement by the BPE issued in Abuja on Monday.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has expressed interest to participate in the acquisition of power plants under the National Integrated Power Project put up for sale by the Federal Government through the Bureau of Public Enterprises.
Kyari said the NNPC had the requisite expertise and experience to be an active participant in the power sector in Nigeria.
He stated that as an oil company and enabler organisation, the NNPC was determined to boost power generation and supply to Nigerian homes through increased investment.
To achieve this, Kyari said the national oil company had signed a contract with China Machinery Engineering Company and General Electric to provide 50 megawatts of electricity to Maiduguri, Borno State.
“According to him (Kyari), the management of NNPC is determined to run the organisation efficiently and profitably for the benefit of the shareholders, hence it plans to engage in activities that will generate funds and for the power sector,” the statement read in part.
ThisDay reports that the federal government has maintained that it has enough petrol in the depots to serve the growing demand, amid the growing queue across the nation.
Updating the press, after receiving a briefing from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), Minister of State, Petroleum, Mr Timipre Sylva, who spoke in Abuja, compared the current situation to an accident.
He stated although not desirable, accidents would happen occasionally, stressing that the situation although not foreseen, was being tamed. “I am quite happy from what I have heard from the NNPC GMD and the Chief Executive of the Authority, that things are being brought under control,” the minister said.
In the last couple of weeks Nigerians have had to grapple with long queues across the nation to buy the product after off-spec fuel was brought into the country.
But last week, the NNPC said it had over 1.7 billion litres of the product in stock, enough to meet the country’s demand. Group Managing Director, NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari, told journalists that the situation was being made worse by motorists who are buying more than they require. The NNPC boss noted that loading across the nation is now taking place 24 hours a day.
The Sun says that the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) on Monday, released its 2020 audit report which shows that 51 oil and gas companies owe the Federal Government a total of $3.17billion (N1.32 trillion).
The report also noted that revenue in the year under review dipped by 40 percent. NEITI 2020 oil and gas industry report, the latest of its financial indicators in the oil and gas industry was unveiled in a public presentation of the oil, gas, mining sector’s operation and the fiscal allocation and statutory disbursement.
It further highlighted that the number of defaulting companies dropped from 77 reported by NEITI in 2019 to 51 in 2020.
Speaking at the unveiling, the Executive Secretary of the NEITI, Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, announced that companies’ liabilities to the Federation as at “December 31, 2020 was N1.32trillion or $3.17billion compared to the N2.6 trillion owed in 2019”.
He described the current debts as collectable revenues that are due to the Federation by the Department of Petroleum Resources and the Federal Inland Revenue Service.
GIK/APA