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A coalition of Taraba youths led by the state chairman of the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), Prince Gara Nongha, has called on those working against the N200 billion loan request by Governor Agbu Kefas from commercial banks to fast-track the development of the state to reconsider their stand.

At a press conference in Jalingo, Nongha said the loan facility requested by the governor was in the best interest of the state.

He said the youths have seen the transparency and sincerity of the governor who have clearly indicated how the money will be spent and the sources through which the loan will be repaid.

“This administration intends to transform the state to become more relevant and provide better services to the people of the state, providing modern development and improved services.

“It is in view of the transparency and accountable leadership of Dr. Agbu Kefas that we lend our voice to support the loan request for the growth and development of our dear state.

“We wish to solicit for the maximum support and cooperation of all and sundry to enable the state government access the loan which is targeted at providing public infrastructure like school buildings, health care development, and roads construction among others.

Workers across 36 state houses of assembly and the National Assembly have threatened to embark on strike from Wednesday pending when their demands on autonomy of the legislative arm of the government would be granted.

Leading reporters gathered that the workers, under the auspices of the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN), are demanding that state governors commence immediate implementation of financial autonomy for state assemblies in line with the 1999 Constitution.

Acting Secretary General, Agugbue Ugochi Happiness, told journalists that they had issued a 21-day-ultimatum and the governors ignored the ultimatum till it expired on October 18, adding that the union further extended the ultimatum by one week.

Some residents, traders and other business ventures on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway have been sent packing by a water surge induced by the release of excess water from the Oyan River Dam.

 Our correspondent who visited the area on Monday saw that the water almost levelled up the long bridge along the highway.

Residents who live in estates like Isheri Riverview, and other residential surroundings in Warewa to the OPIC area were mostly affected.

Leading Reporters gathered that the dam, which is managed by the Ogun-Oshun River Basin Development Authority, and located at Abeokuta North Local Government Area of the state, released excess water this month

Some workers at a block industry around OPIC said the water was making it difficult for them to work as there was nowhere to put their feet.

One of them, identified simply as Akande, said, “The water at some point covered up some of our blocks, but it is gradually reducing because we are at the tail end of the water flow. But many vehicles we use for our work and those parked by others have been submerged.”

 A resident of Isheri Riverview, Tunde Adebanjo, said, “The water is often released like this every year and we suffer the consequences. I only came here to check if the water had gone down, but there was no positive sign at all. We have moved temporarily to a place in Lagos.”

Our correspondent also observed that the Mikano company along the highway had its frontage and compound flooded. Efforts to get close to the building to hear from the workers proved abortive as the water surrounded the premises. While one or two persons were seen in the compound from afar, other passersby said activities in the company were affected.

Meanwhile, the state governor, Dapo Abiodun, on Monday declared a state of emergency in the flooded area as he assured residents of quick intervention.

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The governor spoke with journalists after inspecting the flooded community, saying that his administration is working with the Federal Government to deal with the situation as an emergency case.

The governor said, “We will prioritise the works here because I am touched with what I have seen. I will ensure that we immediately begin to see signs of relief as we step this up. The Minister of State for Environment is already aware. The Vice President is already aware and also the President. It will be dealt with as an emergency and we are taking it as such.

“As an emergency, I would like to take it up myself. Please continue to bear with us as we are going to conduct a comprehensive assessment of what we need to do to make this place conducive for living.”

Addressing residents of Riverview Estate, Abiodun said he had requested an area survey of the estate to identify critical areas that needed immediate intervention.

He assured that the intervention would come through the construction of an elevated road with adequate drainages to mitigate their suffering.

The governor described the environment around the Kara cattle market as an eyesore and not befitting the dreams of a “new Ogun State.”

He said that the market was not conducive to human living and not in tandem with the Sustainable Development Goals and waste disposal.

The Chairman, Riverview Estate, Abayomi Akande, in his remarks, intimated the governor about the suffering residents of the area are going through as a result of the flooding.

He said there was a need for a panel of inquiry into the operations of Oyan Dam to stop the incessant release of water to cause havoc in the state.

President Bola Tinubu’s government has approved the application for a $3.45 billion loan to finance five items.

This decision was reached during the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting on Monday, October 23.

They include projects in the power sector, renewable energy, states’ resource mobilisation programme, adolescent girls’ initiative for learning and empowerment and a women’s empowerment project.

The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, told journalists that Tinubu’s government would proceed to receive the $3.5 billion “zero-interest” loan payable within 40 years with a 10-year moratorium, meaning payments would begin from 2033.

“Today at the Federal Executive Council, I presented five memos which were gracefully approved by the Council. They had to do with concessional and, in many cases, zero-interest financing by the World Bank and the International Development Association, which is the very concessional financing arm,” Edun said.

“The projects that were approved for funding were in the power sector and then the renewable energy sector. There was funding for states for resource mobilisation programmes to help them with the internally-generated revenue efforts.

“There was a project for adolescent girls’ initiative for learning and empowerment. And then finally the fifth financing that was approved was for Women project.”

Edun explained that the girls’ programme worth $700 million would support young girls within secondary school age to equip them with marketable skills in addition to their academic achievements.

Putting a figure to the project, Edun said, “$700m is the size of the current project. So those were five loans totalling $3.45bn. And as you know, the tenure is all around 40 years, with a moratorium period of around 10 years and interest very low, or in the cases of either loans, zero interest. However, some fees would be incurred.”

Explaining further, the Minister of Education, Dr Tahir Mamman, said the girls’ programme, which initially began in seven states, was expanded across 11.

Mamman said, “Initially, from seven participating states, we will now have about 11 additional states participating in this project, which will lead to the empowerment of girls between 10 to 20 right across the participating states.

“This is a very major escalation of this programme that is meant to empower our girls, our teachers and the provision for additional schools in the country.”

He added that the programmes were in line with the Tinubu administration’s agenda to reduce, “if not eliminated altogether,” the number of out-of-school girls and children in general.

As part of efforts to improve revenue generation in the FCT, the minister, Nyesom Wike, has ordered strict implementation of the Personal Income Tax and the FCT Internal Revenue Service Act 2015.

To this end, all ministries, departments and Agencies, commercial banks and FCT Secretariats, Departments and Agencies (SDAs) have been enjoined to ensure strict compliance with the laws, particularly Section 85 of the Personal Income Tax Act (PITA) and Section 31 of the FCT Internal Revenue Service Act 2015.

Both sections provide for demand and verification of Tax Clearance Certificate (TCC) by the MDAs, commercial banks and FCT SDAs before any transaction is allowed.

Mandate Secretary for Economic Planning, Revenue Generation and Public Private Secretariat, Hon Chinedum Elechi, disclosed this at a press conference in Abuja on Monday.

“Penalties ranging from N1,000,000 fine to three years jail as provided in the acts await defaulters as the new revenue generation exercise takes off,” Elechi said.

The Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria has revealed that over two million unregistered pharmaceutical premises are presently operating in the country.

The body lamented that the country is becoming a fertile ground for fake and substandard drug production due to the large number of such locations where medicinal drugs are dispensed and sold.

This alarm was raised by the PSN President, Professor Cyril Usifoh, who called for stricter measures to be adopted and enforcement of pharmaceutical regulations, stressing that unregistered premises pose a serious threat to public health, as they may not meet safety and quality standards.

“The PSN estimates that there are over 25,000 registered pharmacies and patent medicine shops in Nigeria, but this number pales in comparison to the estimated 2 million unregistered premises. Many of these unregistered premises are operating illegally, without any regulatory oversight or adherence to safety and quality standards.

Speaking at a press conference held in Lagos on Saturday, in commemoration of the forthcoming 96th Annual National Conference of the society tagged ‘Jewel City 2023, meant to take place in Gombe State from October 30 to November 4, he expressed displeasure that the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria, which is the regulating authority empowered to curtail the excesses and abuses of some unregistered pharmaceutical premises, lacks a substantive registrar.

The PSN president insisted that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration needed prompt guidance from the nation’s chief legal officer to help navigate the challenges facing the pharmaceutical sector.

He stressed that the president must address the PCN’s financing shortfall and appoint a substantive registrar to close the regulatory deficiencies in the industry.

According to him, “We can’t as a nation have a consuming evil of monstrosity, which the National Assembly has also identified, and you walk away as a government because some financial technocrats think they want to save money.  It amounts to a comprehensive abdication of responsibility by an otherwise responsible government to contemplate this with PCN, which is both a peculiar and unique professional regulatory Council.

“Poor funding and the status quo of the Federal Government involvement have compelled Nigerians to live with physicians dispensing drugs in private hospitals, a thriving drug abuse and misuse culture, which is seriously consuming Nigerians, especially youths and even women.

“From the purview of existing laws, the Federal Government is compelled in Section 9 (1) of the PCN Act 2022 to provide budgetary and extra-budgetary allocations to the PCN.

“It will, therefore, be unlawful and illegal for the Budget Office to stop allocations to the PCN in the public interest.”

Usifoh, further lamented that Nigeria has lost over 6,000 pharmacists to brain drain in the last six years while more are preparing to leave.

He said, “We acknowledge that a few steps like the new salary structure and consultancy cadre, together with the PCN Act are welcome but much more is needed to significantly reverse the trend.”

The Ondo State chapter of the Nigerian Medical Association has threatened to embark on industrial action if the state government failed to fulfil its promise to review the hazard allowance of its members.

The NMA lamented that for a long time, the doctors practising in the government-owned hospitals in the state were paid a sum of N5,000 as hazard allowance and the state government had approved the upward review of the allowance but there was no implementation yet.

Speaking on the NMA 2023 Physicians’ Week on Monday in Akure, the state capital,  the chairman of the Ondo NMA, Dr Omosehin Adeyemi-Osowe, noted that the state government had promised to pay the money this week, failure of which might lead to another industrial action.

According to him, members of the group may not hesitate to go on strike if the implementation of the reviewed allowance is not paid before Friday this week.

He said,” We have many challenges in Ondo NMA, one of them is that we lack personnel. Recently we heard in the news that over 1000 health workers would be employed by the state government. We are still waiting for the recruitment exercise to commence. Another challenge is our allowances, we have had a review recently, and before that review, the hazard allowance has been reviewed upward, before the review of that hazard allowance what we receive as doctors is N5,000.

“This has been reviewed by the Federal Government but up till this moment, Ondo State has not implemented it, but we know that it has been approved, we were promised that there would be implementation in Ondo State, but up till this moment we are yet to perceive the implementation. As of last Friday, the government through the Permanent Secretary on establishment promised that on or before the end of tomorrow (Wednesday) a circular would be out, we are waiting.”

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The state NMA, who confirmed that the state had also experienced the ‘japa’ syndrome in the health sector, said the development required the government to improve the welfare of the remaining health workers in the state.

“In Ondo State today, doctors, pharmacists and others are leaving the country for advanced country, we cannot stop them, they have the human right to migrate, but what are those things making them migrate, these are the things we have discussed with the government, we need competitive allowances and salaries as compared to other countries even if we come locally, as compared to other states, these we are not getting, but we believe it would come,

“I want to tell the government that at the end of this week, and we do not have that circular, well, it would not be bad for Ondo State Nigeria Medical Association of doctors to go on strike at the end of this week if we do not have the circular for the implementation of the hazard allowance in Ondo State, the federal workers have been enjoying this since last year, from December 2021, the Federal Government has cleared all the federal workers allowance, they have paid their workers up till today,” he noted.

In the same vein, the National President of the NMA, Dr Uche Ojinmah whose speech was delivered by  Adeyemi-Osowe, warned against running the doctors down in Nigeria.

Ojinmah said, “We use this medium to humbly sound a note of warning to all and sundry to never try to run Nigerian doctors down in any way but to always follow due process if aggrieved or in discharging their responsibilities. If anyone has any case against a doctor practising in Nigeria, it should channel such to the Registrar of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria for appropriate response being the body statutorily saddled with such responsibility.

“The NMA hereby express her displeasure at the recent media trial of some healthcare workers by the Minister of Women Affairs. We believe that such behaviour is infra dig for one that occupies such a lofty office.”

Nigeria has won its case against the Process and Industrial Developments Company, P&ID.

In the case marked CL-2019-000752, the Federal Government sought to overturn an arbitration award in favour of P&ID which has now accrued interest worth $11 billion.

The company had claimed it entered into an agreement with Nigeria to build a gas processing plant in Calabar, Cross River State, but the deal collapsed because the Nigerian government did not fulfil its end of the bargain.

A London High Court has now delivered judgement in Nigeria’s favour.

Details later

President Bola Tinubu has filed a motion at the US District Court of Columbia to stop the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from releasing files or his records while in America.

Leading reporters recalls that the FBI had said it would release about 2,500 files containing Tinubu’s records during his stay in the US.

According to documents released on Monday by investigative journalist, David Hundeyin, Tinubu prayed the court not to release any of his files.

Troops at the Nigerian Army Headquarters will conduct a battle simulation exercise from Tuesday, October 24, to Wednesday, October 25, 2023. This exercise will take place at the 7 Guards Battalion Obstacle Course in Lungi Barracks, Maitama, Abuja.

This was made known in a press release shared on their X account on Monday.

The statement said, “As part of activities scheduled for the Inter Formation Combat Platoon Obstacle Crossing Competition 2023. From Tuesday 24 October to Wednesday 25 October 2023. Army Headquarters Garrison will conduct a battle simulation exercise at 7 Guards Battalion Obstacle Course Lungi Barracks, Maitama, Abuja.

“The Exercise will involve real-time battlefield simulations and activities. Accordingly, there would be large battle sounds that would be heard during the exercise which are in line with the training exercise.

“Consequently, members of the general public who reside around Maitama, Asokoro, AYA, and the environs are not to panic but go about their normal respective businesses as the battle sounds would not raise any security concern. Furthermore, all necessary safety measures have been put in place.”