Headlines

The Chinese leader, President Xi Jinping, has pledged $50billion for development in Africa, including military aids to the continent.

The Chinese leader also pledged another $280 million in aid to African countries while proposing partnership actions to jointly advance modernization with Africa.

President Xi said China appreciates its ties with African nations and that China and Africa should rally their populations together to become a powerful force and write a new chapter in global peace, prosperity, and progress.

According to President Xi, the 10 actions, to be implemented in the next three years, cover areas of mutual learning among civilizations, trade prosperity, industrial chain cooperation, connectivity, development cooperation, health, agriculture and livelihoods, people-to-people and cultural exchanges, green economic development and common security.

To implement the 10 partnership actions, the Chinese government will provide RMB360 billion yuan of financial support through the next three years.

The Nigerian Government has approved a 50 per cent increase in the feeding allowance for prison inmates in Nigeria, effective from August 2024. This is geared towards addressing rising food costs and improve inmate welfare.

This was confirmed by the spokesperson for the Nigeria Correctional Service, Abubakar Umar.

He described it as the “first phase” of a broader review intended to enhance living conditions for inmates.

“The inmate feeding allowance has been increased by 50 per cent, effective from August 2024. This is just the first phase,” Umar said.

He added that further reviews would follow, particularly due to the soaring cost of food.

“The FG will also consider additional reviews. This is just the first phase. Normally, there is a period when inmate feeding allowances are reviewed. Following a presentation during the budget process, the FG deemed it necessary to adjust the allowance due to the rising cost of food. Further adjustments are expected,” Umar explained.

For the 2024 budget year, the NCoS has been allocated over N24.4 billion for catering materials and foodstuffs.

The need for an increase in the feeding allowance has been a public concern, especially after it was revealed in December 2023 by the Controller General of the NCoS, Haliru Nababa, that N750 was allocated per day for each prisoner, while N800 was spent daily on feeding each of the 900 dogs in the service.

Inmate welfare issues gained further attention recently after a viral video from the Afokang Custodial Centre in Calabar, Cross River State, showed inmates being served poorly cooked meals.

This sparked public outrage and led to an investigation ordered by the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, into the conditions at the facility.

The NCoS confirmed that the investigation is ongoing, emphasising that the incident does not reflect the overall standards of care and commitment to inmate welfare across the country.

On Wednesday, commercial tricycle operators, popularly known as ‘Keke riders,’ joined forces with a group of disgruntled women and youths in Delta State to stage a peaceful protest. The demonstration was sparked by the acute scarcity of premium motor spirit, which has been further worsened by the government’s recent announcement of a fuel price hike.”

It was learnt that by the early morning hours, the scene was set with hundreds of market women and Keke riders traversing the bustling metropolis of Warri and Effurun, voicing their demands for President Bola Tinubu to take immediate action and reverse the escalation in fuel prices.

The protesters were equipped with placards and engaged in vocal protests, expressing their discontent and indignation towards the fuel price hike, which has escalated the fuel cost to nearly ₦1,100 per litre, further aggravating their economic hardships.

Some of the placards bore inscriptions such as “Tinubu, intervene now to alleviate commuters’ suffering’; ‘Tinubu, activate Warri and Kaduna refineries without further delay,’ ‘We are suffering in silence, the fuel price hike is a killer.”

The protesters appealed to President Tinubu to implement immediate measures to mitigate the crisis and offer relief to the Nigerian populace.

It was gathered that a segment of the protesters made their way from the well-known Deco Road towards Enerhen, expressing their discontent over the severe economic strain exacerbated by the excessive increase in fuel prices, in addition to the scarcity of resources.

According to The information, most of the service stations along the Warri-Sapele road were shut to motorists on Wednesday morning, with those that remained operational charging petrol prices above ₦1,000 per litre.

As a result, this situation adversely impacted commuters within the metropolitan area and those travelling between states, as drivers increased their fares for transportation.

The typically vibrant Airport Junction in Effurun, a key hub for interstate travel, appeared significantly diminished on Wednesday, as prospective travellers faced difficulties in purchasing tickets, and transport operators voiced their frustration over the lack of access to fuel.

Kenneth Okonkwo, former spokesman of the Labour Party presidential campaign council, has stated that Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi, and President Bola Tinubu are not fit to contest in the 2027 election. Okonkwo, a Nollywood legend, declared that the two former presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP), Atiku and Obi, respectively, along with the President, have failed Nigerians.

Okonkwo asserted that the trio has failed Nigerians, rendering them unfit to lead the country in the future. He specifically mentioned Atiku Abubakar, former presidential candidate of the PDP, and Peter Obi, former presidential candidate of the LP, alongside the current President, Bola Tinubu.

Speaking on Arise TV, on Tuesday, Okonkwo regretted that instead of thinking about consolidation and living up to their duties as opposition parties; the PDP and Labour Party have allowed the APC-led administration to get away with inhuman policies responsible for the hardship Nigerians are facing.

He said, “I completely agree with you that we need new faces, 100%, and that was why I have said it, that Atiku, Peter Obi, Tinubu should step aside. And the reason is because the ruling party has failed, the opposition has failed. Are you aware that in the House of Representatives, you have more opposition members as representatives than the ruling class? If they had come together, and that’s why I said, coming together to form a consolidated fortune, before you even begin to talk about merger, I did not say merger is not important.

“I’m saying you don’t just finish an election, and the first thing you start talking about is the next election. You consolidate and form alliances amongst yourselves to work together as opposition. If all the opposition members in the House of Representatives had come together, they would have produced the Speaker and the Vice.”

A human rights lawyer, Okonkwo stated that the argument that all opposition parties in the build-up to the 2023 general election promised to remove fuel subsidy, should not be used to justify President Tinubu’s poor economic policy on fuel subsidy removal.

“Now, what you said about subsidy. The three parties agreed subsidy should go. The three parties did not say that subsidy should be irresponsibly, without plans, removed on the first day before a president sets up his cabinet, before a president makes any plan for the cushioning effect.

A president in the inauguration ground said first subsidy is gone. The opposition parties did not subscribe to that. I came to your studio the next day, saying we should be careful coming out of oil subsidy, that from the way this is done, it is unsustainable, and it is still on record.

“What is the objective of the government? Security and welfare of the people. This president is in China, in a new presidential jet that is unnecessary, while people are dying for security problems in Sokoto, in Maiduguri, and then you’re saying that is what should be done? No, this government is nepotistic and despotic. It is very self-centered and egocentric, all about itself,” Okonkwo stated.