Social Commerce and Product Discovery Network

5 yrs

2023: PDP to review manifesto, reposition — Uche Secondus

The opposition Peoples Democratic Party is set to review its manifesto to align with Nigeria ’s current socio - political realities,
The PUNCH has learnt .

Our correspondent gathered that this was one of the decisions taken at the party’ s National Caucus meeting which ended in the early hours of Thursday.

A source at the meeting, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media on the issue , said, “ We received briefings from the Governor Bala Mohammed- led committee set up to review the 2019 general elections, the state of our party, and also discussed a wide range of issues of national importance.
“ The Bala Mohammed Committee is yet to conclude its assignment but substantial progress has been made. ”

Asked if the defection of the Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi, was discussed, the source said, “We were briefed by the National Working Committee on efforts made to persuade him to remain .”

Speaking further, the source said, “ We also agreed that as part of our agenda to reposition the party, we will be reviewing our manifesto for it to align with current realities in the social-political sphere. It will form part of the agenda of our National Executive Committee meeting holding in a few hours from now .”

Speaking to reporters soon after the caucus meeting, National Chairman of the PDP , Uche Secondus simply said, “ We discussed issues affecting our party and our country. “
Also, the Governor of Taraba State , Darius Ishaku, said, “ The PDP remains the only party which is nationalistic , we are repositioning ourselves to become stronger. ”

Those who attended the meeting which held at the Akwa Ibom Governor’ s Lodge , Asokoro , include Governors Udom Emmanuel ( Akwa Ibom) , Bala Mohammed ( Bauchi) , Darius Ishaku, ( Taraba) , former Senate Presidents David Mark and Bukola Saraki , the chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees, Senator Walid Jibrin and a former PDP National Chairnan, Bello Haliru, among others .

#punchng

5 yrs

Buhari Lauds Jonathan For Helping To Restore Peace In Mali

President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday congratulated his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, on the occasion of the latter’s 63rd birthday.

The president’s felicitations were contained in a statement signed by his spokesman, Femi Adesina.

He thanked Jonathan for his service to the country and the African continent, including his work in helping to restore calm to the Republic of Mali after a military coup earlier this year.

“On behalf of the Federal Government and Nigerians in general, President Muhammadu Buhari warmly felicitates with former President Goodluck Jonathan on his 63rd birthday, November 20, 2020, congratulating him for a life of service that has brought honour and goodwill to the country,” the statemnt said.

“The President notes, with appreciation, the peculiar and remarkable climb of the former president on Nigeria’s political ladder, and dedication that has kept him working most recently as ECOWAS envoy to bring peace to the Republic of Mali.

“As the former Nigerian President turns 63, President Buhari prays that the Almighty God will grant Dr Jonathan longer life, good health and more wisdom to keep serving the nation and humanity.”

#channels

5 yrs

IGP: Nigerians Have Lost Confidence, Trust In Us

The Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, has said the loss of confidence between the Police and the Nigerians was one of the major challenges hampering effective discharge of the Force responsibility.

He said introduction of community policing was part of the efforts aimed at rebuilding the lost confidence.

Adamu, who was represented at a policy dialogue on policing organised by the House of Representatives to collate views on a bill to amend the Police Service Commission act by DIG Olushola Oyebande, said management of the Police was working on regaining public trust.

He said: “We all know that constitutionally, the police have legal rights to live and legally speaking, the constitution guarantees a position where they can even use their fire arms to defend themselves when the situation demands.

“Within all that, we have asked them not to do anything that will bring colossal loss to members of the public.

“Going forward, there’s a lot of confidence building mechanism that’s being put in place to retrain the police to bring back confidence.

“Now a major problem is lack of confidence between the police and members of the public.

“That’s why the present administration came up with community policing and we are trying to see how it will work.

“It’s the best form of policing and a global phenomenon. I was part of the team that went to do the research.

“There’s a lot of distrust and disconnect between the police and the public. So the community policing will try to bring this into focus and to bridge that gap.

“It’s going to be community driven and problem solving. We want to involve the community, the locals to be part of policing of the area.

“They know the culture, the language, topography and that’s why we’re having the community policing initiative to train the locals to join us. So we don’t prevent proactive policing, rather than being reactive.”

#nairaland

5 yrs ·Youtube

NDLEA Seizes 5 Tons Of Cannabis After One Month Surveillance In Lagos

Men of the Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) made a large drug trafficking catch in Lagos State.

Men of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), after intelligence reports, carried out 1-month surveillance of a notorious drug syndicate that operates within Lagos and Osun state. The surveillance paid off on the 17th of November when over 5 tons of Cannabis Sativa, otherwise known as Weed, was discovered and seized after 7 hours of raiding the location in Ayobo area of Lagos, and the suspect, one 41-year-old Mr. Promise Achiwenu was arrested while other members of the group are still at large.

#nairaland

5 yrs

Labour Unions In Dilemma Over Tariff Hikes

• Agitators push for N120 per litre of fuel

• Threaten to shut down oil production in 11 days

• NNPC takes over pricing, confusion in PPPRA

The Nigeria labour movement appears to have finally lost the battle to stop tariff hikes in the two critical sectors of downstream petroleum and electricity.

Niger-Delta Youth Council (NDYC), yesterday, threatened to shut down oil production over increase in pump price of premium motor spirit (PMS).

NDYC Convener, General Ebi Tamuno, in a statement, said there was no justification for worsening the plight of Nigerians through persistent hikes in price of fuel. It said, given the existing economic realities, COVID-19 and #endsars issues that put the country out of productivity in various forms, it would be a policy aberration to allow any form of price increase in electricity tariff or fuel pump price because it would impact negatively on Nigerians.

“We make bold to state that it is an affront on the survival of Nigerians, who are already finding it hard to feed on daily basis, to be made to suffer from years of bad governance. We will not hesitate to stand for the rights of Niger Deltans in particular and Nigerians in general.”

The group demanded immediate reduction of pump price of PMS to N120 per litre within 11 days. It also enjoined the authorities to fix the nation’s refineries and immediately put them to use, to forestall incessant price increment.

Calling for a more robust policy to reposition the petroleum industry, NDYC threatened that oil workers would be forced to leave the Niger Delta region within 14 days if government fails to live up to their expectation.

“Let it be noted that their safety cannot be guaranteed if government fails to revert the pump price to N120. We will not hesitate to declare a national day of action for a nationwide protest as the economy is biting hard on citizens,” NDYC noted.

THE Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), on Monday, decried increment in pump price to about N160 but failed to state if it was going to embark on protests or nationwide strike to force a reduction. Its Trade Union Congress (TUC) counterpart also condemned the hike but failed to state whether, or not, it would embark on any action.

The Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC) has, in the last three months, been conveying the price of PMS to Nigerians through issuance of memos to its depot managers. Before now, the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) was in charge of announcing monthly price guide, which stakeholders in the sector and in the transportation sub-sector used in determining the price of its services.

In the meantime, there is confusion regarding which agency is in charge of the downstream sector as the PPMC has assumed the core responsibilities of the PPPRA.

The PPMC, as marketer like any other, is in charge of price announcements. This has resulted in arbitrary pricing by marketers, with no clear-cut agency monitoring compliance in the sector. Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, has since disbanded the Price Review Committee (PRC), which was set up by the Federal Government to review price of PMS.

Even before the disbandment, the NNPC had declined to attend the meeting for two consecutive months.

The PRC drew its membership from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Ministry of Finance and Budget, DPR, PPPRA, among others.

WITH the COVID-19 foisting a decline in foreign exchange earnings, the Federal Government had a ready alibi to push through its deregulation of the downstream down the throats of Nigerians.

The Guardian gathered in Abuja last night that Labour’s failure to obtain the commitment of the Federal Government to refrain from increasing price beyond N160 per litre has put the NLC into a difficult situation.

In agreeing to accept deregulation, labour pushed for immediate gains for workers that belong to its affiliate unions and not the generality of Nigerians.

In the hurried deal, the Federal Government agreed to make available to Organized Labour 133 CNG/LPG-driven mass transit buses immediately and provide to the major cities across the country on a scale-up basis, thereafter to all states and local governments before December 2021.

About two months down the line, no single bus has been provided by the Federal Government.

Part of the agreement entailed that the Federal Government would make 10 per cent of it housing project outputs available to workers through the NLC and TUC.

Both government and labour resolved to set up a technical committee, which had two weeks to examine the justifications for the new policy in view of the need for the validation of the basis for the new cost reflective electricity tariff. This was as a result of the conflicting information from the fields that appeared different from data presented to justify the new policy by the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), metering deployment, challenges and timeline for massive rollout.

Nigerians have since started paying the new tariff without labour achieving any tangible result.

Following the suspension of the two week ultimatum against the increase in tariff, the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) has said that the NLC and TUC acted responsibly to avoid heating the polity and disrupting economic activities.

THE Director General, Timothy Olawale said the major challenges confronting the nation were the new price of electricity tariff and hike in petrol.

However, he maintained that NECA believed that, with the economic instability, one would understand why labour took the line of suspending the strike.

On the electricity tariff, he urged that government should ensure issue of metering was not abandoned, maintaining that consumers must be metered to avoid paying outrageous bills.

He urged the distribution companies to expedite action on distributing pre-paid meters to all consumers.

#nairaland

5 yrs

Cross River, Dantata Group, CBN Partner On Agriculture

Cross River State is partnering the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Dantata group to create 20,000 agro-based jobs for youths, it has been learnt.

Governor Ben Ayade stated this yesterday when officials of Dantata Group and CB visited his office.

He said: “The meeting between CBN, Dantata group and Cross River is to cement a factor and create opportunity first for livestock, cattle and poultry. I have made an offer of job opportunities to 20,000 young people with immediate effect but you are actually going to be your own employer.

“We will provide the money. We have signed an agreement with CBN to provide us money to support 20,000 young farmers.”

The young farmers, Ayade explained, will be deployed in cotton production, livestock, maize and soya beans farming, rice farming, cocoa processing, groundnut cultivation, among others.

The governor added that the state, in partnership with Dantata group, will also set up an abattoir in Obudu cattle ranch to grow cattle, beef production and exportation within the West African sub-region.

According to Ayayde, his administration was taking the lead in agro-industrialisation because ‘this is the only way we can create jobs and reduce youth restiveness, and allow young people to realise their full potential’.

He argued that with massive arable land, it was an anomaly for the country to continue to import food. “The advent of COVID-19 and the EndSARS protests are like a clarion call that time has come for us to end food imports. So I identify fully with President Muhammadu Buhari’s philosophy and policy of ban on imported foods to force us to start creating jobs for young people,” he added.

Leader of the Dantata team Alhaji Tajuddeen Dantata, who is also chairman and CEO of Dantata Food and Allied Product Company Ltd, said his company was delighted to partner with Cross River in agro production.

He maintained that the time has come for Nigeria to take its destiny in its hand in terms of food production. “We have to really work on ourselves because we have to produce what we eat and eat what we produce. We can’t sit and continue to be fed with whatever comes,” he noted.

#nairaland

5 yrs

ASUU Denies Suspending Strike

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has denied reports that it has suspended the indefinite strike action, IgbereTV reports.

This denial comes after a statement started making the rounds online with the subject, "Notice of suspension of ASUU indefinite strike action of all member universities across Nigeria."

ASUU shared a screenshot of the statement on Twitter and called it:

"fake news".
https://twitter.com/ASUUNGR/st....atus/132916028707380

It added that,

"The Federal Government has said it will resume meeting with the Academic Staff Union of Universities on Friday.

"The Ministry of Labour and Employment disclosed this on Wednesday night."
https://twitter.com/ASUUNGR/st....atus/132917138150275

The statement from ASUU continues:

"The parley is expected to address various pending issues, including the contentious payment platform preferred by the union."

#asuustrike

5 yrs

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