Good morning Nigeria, welcome to the Editor roundup of top newspaper headlines in Nigeria for today, Monday, 4th September 2023.
1. The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has vowed to carry on with its planned two-day warning strike beginning tomorrow. The NLC said it was not aware of any meeting with the Federal Government on Monday (today). A top official of the NLC told reporters that there was no invitation from the Federal Government for any meeting, adding that the industrial action was instigated by state councils and industrial unions.
2. The Trade Union Congress (TUC) will not be part of the strike declared by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC). The Union is said to have decided at its National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting on Sunday in Abuja that it would continue with dialogue with the federal government to ease the pain of petrol subsidy removal.
3. The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, has said that Nigeria would experience glorious days again when the naira was more valuable than the United States dollar. The cleric said this on Sunday while preaching on ‘Uncommon Miracles’ during the September Thanksgiving Service of the church at the RCCG, National Headquarters, Ebute Metta, Lagos.
4. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said no member of his cabinet had the authority to approve more than N25 million without his consent when he was leading the country between 1999 and 2007. Obasanjo said this in an exclusive interview with TheCable, while challenging the former minister of power and steel, Olu Agunloye, where he got the authority to award $6 billion contract to Sunrise Power and Transmission Ltd in respect of the Mambilla Hydropower Project in 2003.
5. The new leadership of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, under Dr Agbo Gilbert Major has asked former leaders of the party to urgently account for over N1 billion raised from the sale of nomination and expression of interest forms, ahead of the 2023 Presidential and general election.
6. The Federal Government, through the Ministry of Solid Minerals, has said that there are plans to establish a Solid Minerals Corporation, which will be a state-backed company, to manage minerals and provide funding in the mining sector. This was disclosed in a statement on Sunday by Deputy Director of Press in the Ministry, Alaba Balogun
7. Kaduna State Governor, Senator Uba Sani has flagged off the training of 7,000 recruits for the Kaduna Vigilance Service to complement the efforts of other security agencies to tackle kidnapping, armed robbery, and other related crimes. The Governor added that the recruits, being trained at the Police College, Kaduna, in the State capital, were drawn from the 23 local government areas of the State.
8. The Federal Government has said that the electricity meter upgrade process to be implemented by power distribution companies would not affect the credit units balance in the meters. It disclosed this in a statement issued in Abuja by the Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency, NEMSA, stressing that it would ensure that all electricity meters and instruments deployed in the sector were of the right standard.
9. The governments of Lagos and Nasarawa have urged those living in their coastal communities to relocate immediately, citing increased risk of flooding and its deadly consequences. Meanwhile, some residents in the threatened Otuoke community in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa, have urged the federal and state governments to come to their rescue.
10. Members of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) yesterday lamented that the forex situation and the structural imbalance in the pricing regime were frustrating their full participation in the downstream oil sector, contrary to the ideals of full deregulation.
