Press zooms in on major shake-up in Nigeria’s security architecture, others

APA – Lagos (Nigeria)
The shake-up in the Nigerian security architecture with the immediate retirement of all the service chiefs and the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba dominates the headlines of Nigerian newspapers on Tuesday.
The Punch reports that President Bola Tinubu on Monday carried out a major shake-up of the nation’s security architecture with the immediate retirement of all the service chiefs and the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba.
Also affected are special advisers and the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service.
According to a statement by the Director of Information, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Willie Bassey, a former Theatre Commander, Operation Hadin Kai, Major General Christopher Musa, has replaced General Lucky Irabor as the Chief of Defence Staff.
Similarly, Major General Taoreed Lagbaja is now the Chief of Army Staff. He replaced Lieutenant General Farouk Yahaya.
Air Vice Marshal H.B Abubakar was appointed as the Chief of Air Staff in place of Air Marshal Oludayo Amao and Rear Admiral E. A Ogalla will take over from Vice Admiral Awwal Gambo as the Chief of Naval Staff.
Also, Deputy Inspector-General of Police Kayode Egbetokun has been appointed as the acting IG while Major General EPA Undiandeye is the acting Chief of Defence Intelligence.
Nuhu Ribadu, who was appointed last week as the Security Adviser to the President, has been elevated as the National Security Adviser.
He replaced Major General Babagana Monguno (retd.) who was appointed in July 2015 by former President Muhammadu Buhari.
The newspaper says that President Bola Tinubu, on Monday, in Abuja, called for an equitable balance between fossil fuel and green energy in the race for energy transition.
He also urged the United States and other developed nations not to forget Nigeria and Africa’s challenge with poverty as the world transitions into clean energy.
“The new energy we are talking about represents just 5 per cent of global energy requirements. We must find the right balance between new energy and fossil fuel because we have problem of poverty in Africa,” Tinubu said during a meeting with United States Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Energy Resources, Geoffrey Praytt, at the State House, Abuja.
The Special Adviser to the President on Special Duties, Communication and Strategy, Dele Alake, disclosed this in a statement he signed on Monday titled, ‘President Tinubu seeks better cooperation with us over energy transition.’
President Tinubu presented his perspectives to the US delegation on the role of Nigeria as an oil producing country and the importance of revenue from fossil oil to national economic well-being.
“Nigeria is an oil producing nation and a developing economy that needs revenue from fossil fuel for growth and development,” he argued.
He maintained that the country will honour all its obligations to climate change and quest for clean energy.
Therefore, Tinubu appealed to the United States and other developed nations to recognize that Nigeria and Africa have a challenge of poverty that must be addressed, saying in the race for energy transition, the world must have a right balance between the fossil fuel and green energy.
On the nexus between the problem of poverty in Africa and fragility of democracy on the continent, President Tinubu admonished the United States to work with Nigeria to protect the government of the people.
He also urged the Assistant Secretary of State to impress on his home government the urgency of responding to the needs of Nigeria.
“Our democracy needs protection like all other democracies in the world. We cherish our partnership with the US. My concern is whether United States is giving us enough as much as we need.
The Punch also reports that the naira slumped further to the dollar after closing at 770.38/$ at the end of trading on the investor & exporter forex window on Monday.
According to figures obtained from the FMDQ on Monday, the trading rates had closed at N686.96/$ on Friday.
Trading opened at N703.50/$ and hit a high of N799/$ before closing at N770.38/$.
The I& E forex window recorded a total turnover of $78.03m at the close of trading on Monday.
The Central Bank of Nigeria, last week directed Deposit Money Banks to remove the rate cap on the naira at the I&E window to allow for a free float of the national currency against the dollar and other global currencies.
The banking regulator explained its new forex operation in its report on ‘Understanding the operational changes to the foreign exchange market’.
By collapsing all segments in the FX market into the I&E window, it said this meant all eligible FX transactions in the market would only be done via the I&E window, as all other windows ceased to exist.
The Nation says that the Federal Government of Nigeria and organised labour have reached an agreement to sort out the implementation of the resolutions they reached on palliatives to cushion the effect of petroleum subsidy removal by August.
Representatives of the government and those of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) adjourned meeting two weeks ago after jointly drawing up seven resolutions and three agreements for the welfare of workers and other Nigerians.
At the resumed meeting yesterday at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, the two parties, among other things, set up a Presidential Steering Committee to serve as a clearing house in coordinating the technical sub-committees on different items raised.
Addressing State House correspondents after the meeting, TUC President Festus Osifo and his NLC counterpart, Joe Ajaero, said the parties would reconvene next Monday to review the framework they agreed upon.
Osifo said: “We have concluded our meeting. If you remember very well, the last time that we were here, that TUC and NLC met with government about two weeks ago, we agreed that we were going to reconvene today. That is June 19. We just reconvened. We had a meeting although brief…
“We agreed that anything we are putting together we are going to conclude everything in eight weeks. Everything must be rolled out within that time, not something that we are going to leave endlessly. They have submitted the framework to us. We have looked at it. We have made input. This night, we will continuously work on it in order for us to come up with the deliverables…”
“If you look at the communiqué that was signed in our last meeting, there are some action items in the communiqué. So, it’s actually how these action items will be delivered. For example, we need to have a Presidential Steering Committee that will have to oversee everything.
“We also need to have technical sub-committees, because if we talk about the issue of CNG, we need experts… You need those people that are willing to invest… You need the national oil company, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to come up with what they need to do and the time with which they are going to deliver.”
GIK/APA