The views expressed by a retired Justice of the Supreme Court that many previous decisions of the apex court should be laid to rest and never followed is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Tuesday.
The Vanguard reports that a retired Justice of the Supreme Court, Olabode Rhodes-Vivour, said yesterday that many previous decisions of the apex court should be laid to rest and never followed.
Justice Rhodes-Vivour, who clocked the 70 years mandatory retirement age yesterday, spoke at a valedictory session the Supreme Court held in his honour.
He took his last opportunity on the bench to address key issues affecting both the judiciary and the nation. The retired jurist noted that the Supreme Court had on several occasions, held that it is absolutely bound by the doctrine of Precedent or stare decisis.
He said the doctrine, in effect, means “stand by your decisions and the decisions of your predecessors, however, wrong they are and whatever injustices they inflict”.
Justice Rhodes-Vivour argued that abiding by such principle would ensure that the apex court continued to follow some of its previous judgments that no longer make sense.
He said: “There are some Precedents that are clearly out of date, and should no longer be followed. “I am of the view that Precedents that no longer make sense anymore or are outdated should be laid to rest and never followed.”
The Guardian says that after several months of being shutdown, Enugu, Port Harcourt and Kano airports will soon be opened for international flights.
Nigeria’s Aviation Minister, Hadi Sirika disclosed this at the weekly media briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 on Monday.
The affected airports are the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport in Kano State, the Akanu Ibiam International Airport in Enugu State, and the Port Harcourt International Airport in Rivers State.
Sirika said a technical working group comprising relevant agencies involved in the facilitation of passengers had been set up to ensure that all standards required for seamless operations at the airports earmarked for the resumption of international flights were in place.
He noted that members of the task force will be visiting the airports for simulation exercises to ascertain their readiness for international operations.
The minister also announced the resumption of catering services suspended at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Punch reports that the National Action Committee on African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement has disclosed plans to achieve economically viable communities in Nigeria by growing its intra-Africa export trade volume to $50bn by 2035.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President and Secretary, National Action Committee on AfCTA, Francis Anatogu, made the disclosure in an AfCFTA overview presentation to the media in Lagos on Monday.
He stated that other national AfCFTA aspirations were to establish a highly productive workforce, a business-friendly environment, quality infrastructure, export development incentives and a strong national brand.
According to him, Nigeria’s edge was being one of the most entrepreneurial, innovative and ingenious economies as well as the country’s scale of opportunities, quality of talent, scale of ambition and the adaptability and agility of the people.
Anatogu said, “Success with AfCFTA is a diversified and sustainable Nigerian economy with strong linkages with neighbours and the top economies in Africa and a globally accepted country brand.”
ThisDay says that the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Niyi Adebayo, yesterday said the Bank of Industry (BoI) has finalized plans to deploy a $1billion syndicated-term loan to support the Micro Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) sector.
He said the move was part of the federal government’s efforts towards economic recovery and sustainable growth, working with international partners to boost the sector.
Adebayo, at the Quantum Mechanics Limited MSME survival fund capacity building programme in Abuja added that the federal government is discussing with Dunn & Bradstreet to establish an SME risk rating institution – the SME Rating Agency of Nigeria (SMERAN), to provide an empirical basis for analysing the eligibility of SMEs to access credit.
He stated that the initiative will enhance the capacity of the bank to support small businesses across key sectors of the economy through the provision of affordable loans of medium to long-term tenor with moratorium benefits.
The newspaper reports that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) yesterday vigorously defended the approval of a whopping $1.5 billion for the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery, maintaining that apart from following due process, building a new refinery in the class of the one in Rivers will cost the federal government between $7 billion and $12 billion.
The Group Managing Director of the corporation, Mallam Mele Kyari, who spoke in Abuja, stated that the decision to revamp the old facility was further taken because constructing a new refinery will take a period of four years, during which Nigeria must continue to import products.
The NNPC helmsman argued that there was no basis for comparison between the Port Harcourt refinery and the one sold by Shell in America for $1.2 billion in terms of capacity, describing the public comments emanating thereof as curious.
He disclosed that the actual cost of the project is about $1.34 billion, noting that the additional expenses include taxes and other duties that could come up.
The Sun says that Nigeria is believed to be losing over N800 billion monthly to lack of 24-hour seaport operation, according to Rev. Jonathan Nicole, president, Shippers Association in Lagos.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo hand in May 2017, signed an executive order directing resumption of 24-hour operations at the Apapa Port and prohibiting touting in all seaports.
However, three years after the order, the nation was yet to witness the 24-hour operations in the seaports while agencies sacked from operating at the seaports have since returned to continue with their physical examination of cargoes.
The development prompted that Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Ms Hadiza Bala-Usman, to accuse some Federal Government agencies operating at the ports of failing to comply with Prof Osinbajo’s directive and executive order.
According to Nicole, the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) generated almost N26 billion daily in the past from seaports, but lamented that the figure has since dropped due to the various challenges at the port occasioned by the gridlock.
GIK/APA