Atiku Abubakar, former vice-president of Nigeria, says loans
borrowed by the present Bola Tinubu administration are “bone-crushing to
Nigerians”.
The senate and the house of representatives approved a $2.2
billion loan request from Tinubu earlier on Thursday.
Reacting to the development in a statement, Abubakar said
Nigerians are being crushed by a blend of the administration’s “failed
trial-and-error policies and loan rackets”.
“These Tinubu’s loans are bone-crushing to Nigerians and
bringing insufferable pressure on the economy, especially when they are not
properly negotiated and utilized,” he said.
Former Senator Shehu Sani has said that it is unjust for
only four states to receive 70 percent of the Value Added Tax (VAT)
distribution.
The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) Chairman had told
the House of Representatives that only four states take 70 percent of VAT,
namely Lagos, Rivers, Oyo, and the FCT, citing an example of MTN paying most of
its VAT to Lagos while all the states consume its services.
Reacting to this, Sani, in a statement via X, admonished
critics of the Bill to remove their political lenses and read the document
thoroughly.
He also said the Bill should be supported to end the
prevailing tax injustice in the country.
Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola, has admitted he had planned for this season to be his last with the Premier League champions.
But he refused to “let the club down” following a run of four consecutive defeats.
On Thursday night, City announced that Guardiola has signed a two-year contract extension.
This will take the 53-year-old’s reign to over a decade.
Big Brother Naija Season 7 winner, Josephine Ijeoma Otabor, aka Phyna, has publicly disowned her family.
The Edo-born reality star also revealed her decision to drop her surname, Otabor.
She disclosed this via her verified X handle on Thursday night.
Phyna stated she has been going through difficulty times lately.
Members of the Esan West Local Government chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, are divided over the list of commissioner-nominees.
In a protest letter dated November 21, 2024, addressed to the State Governor, Monday Okpebholo through the Secretary to the State Government, Barrister Musa Umar Ikhilor, the petitioners opined that the list submitted to the governor do not reflect the five kingdoms that make up the local government.
The petition titled, “Re: Nomination of five names from Esan West Local Government” was written by the party’s leaders from the ten wards in the locality.
They listed the five kingdoms as Ekpoma, Idoa, Ogwa, Ujogba, and Egoro.
The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, on Friday, urged its members to remain calm and focus on the mandate of achieving a sovereign state of Biafra.
While condemning Ekpa’s activities, IPOB said that for every crime, there is a day of reckoning.
IPOB made the call following the arrest and detention of embattled self-acclaimed Prime Minister of Biafra, Simon Ekpa.
Emma Powerful, the spokesman of IPOB said Ekpa is not a registered member of the group.
The naira appreciated against the dollar at the foreign exchange market at the close of business on Thursday.
FMDQ data showed that the naira strengthened to N1,658.57 per dollar on Thursday from N1,687.52 exchanged on Wednesday.
This represents a N28.95 gain against the dollar.
Meanwhile, at the black market, the naira fell to N1,755 per dollar on Thursday from the N1,750 exchange rate the previous day.
The Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru
Obasa, on Thursday, said he does not lack the experience to contest the
governorship race in the state, just as he noted that he had not given serious
thought about becoming the next governor “as was already being speculated.”
Obasa said his major concern had been to strengthen the
party in the state, adding that this was why he continued to mobilise more
people to support the party at all times, an act he said had been misconstrued
by “political detractors” to mean that he was chasing a governorship ambition.
The Speaker said this in his remarks shortly after Governor
Babajide Sanwo-Olu presented the state’s 2025 budget size of
N3,005,935,198,401.
Obasa said, “I have made it a personal task to mobilise
people on the platform of Mandate, which has been misconstrued by some
political detractors as being a selfish aspiration on the ground for me to
become governor of the state. There is the need, however, to correct this wrong
impression. My concern is about building our party, and whatever we do is
mainly for this cause.
A former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic
Party, Chief Bode George, has advised former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to
end his 31-year-long bid to be President.
Noting that Atiku’s bid to be President dated back to the
year 1993, George said it was high time the former Vice President retired from
such a contest, especially in the 2027 election.
Addressing a press conference at his Ikoyi, Lagos office, on
Thursday, George urged Atiku to assume the position of an elder in the nation
and leave his bid to posterity.
“To Atiku, my advice is this, you will be 81 years old in
2027, and you have been contesting for the presidency since 1993. This is the
time for you to calm down and act like an elder. I appeal to you in the name of
the Almighty Allah, that you serve, to take it easy and leave everything for
posterity,” George said.
The Labour Party, LP, has launched an initiative to boost grassroots mobilization and empower youth leaders across the country as part of its preparation for the 2027 general election.
The party stressed unity and collaboration among youths as key to driving the change required to secure the presidency.
The Director-General of the Labour Party Directorate of Mobilization and Integration, Marcel Ngogbehei, speaking at the party’s National Youth Leaders Conference on Wednesday in Abuja, emphasized the critical role of youth leaders in shaping the political landscape.
He underscored the significance of grassroots leadership in fostering national unity and bridging divides among stakeholders and communities.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has identified that Nigeria would
require the support of the International Monetary Fund to close the gap of
out-of-school children and to expand the economy’s tax base.
According to a statement on Thursday by Tinubu’s
spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, the president made this known recently when the
Director of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, paid him a courtesy call on the
sidelines of the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Brazil.
He noted that Nigeria has too many children out of school,
which required adequate education— solutions to hunger and poverty in Nigeria.
According to him, Nigeria engages stakeholders and Nigerians
on the need to expand the country’s tax base for economic development without
necessarily increasing taxes.
Diezani Alison-Madueke, a former minister of petroleum, has
sought to amend her suit challenging a final forfeiture order against her
assets.
At the court session on Thursday, Godwin Iyinbor, counsel to
Diezani, said he had received a counter affidavit filed by the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in opposition to the suit.
He also informed the court that they have filed a motion to
amend their processes and that the commission had been duly served.
The EFCC had issued a notice of its plan to conduct a public
sale of all assets seized from Diezani beginning on January 9, 2023.
Amid economic hardship and worsening poverty in the country,
former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Kingsley Moghalu
has stated that hope is not a strategy.
This is even as he said that he’s hopeful about Nigeria
despite sustained contemporary difficulties.
Moghalu maintained that the country needed to improve state
capacity for effective governance.
According to him, Nigerians must learn to be honest with
themselves and address the root causes of their problems.
The Arewa Consultative Forum has suspended its national chairman, Mamman Mike Osuman, for making what it describes as an authorised statement concerning the 2027 presidency.
Osuman was quoted as saying during the ACF National Executive Council meeting on Wednesday that the North would support a northern candidate for the presidency in the 2027 general elections.
Reacting in a statement on Thursday, the forum, through its Chairman, Board of Trustees, Bashir Dalhatu and Secretary General, Murtala Aliyu, said Osuman made the statements without consulting or discussing with other leaders and members of the ACF, adding that the statements made only reflected his personal opinion.
The Defence Headquarters and a coalition of civil society organisations, CSOs, led by a Tinubu support group, the Renewed Hope Ambassadors of Nigeria, RHAN, and the Centre for Action Against Corruption, CAAC, on Thursday faulted claims made by ex-Niger Delta militant leader, Government Ekpemupolo, also known as Tompolo, concerning oil theft in Nigeria.
Tompolo, the Chairman of Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited, which is executing the pipeline protection contract awarded by the Nigerian government, had while receiving the national leadership of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, on Monday, accused the military, particularly the Nigerian Navy, of involvement in oil theft.
He accused the Navy of working at cross purposes with other state actors and private security outfits tasked with checking oil theft in the Niger Delta.
However, speaking at a biweekly update on military operations on Thursday in Abuja, Director of Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba, dismissed Tompolo’s claims, describing it as ‘cheap blackmail’.