The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad , has tested positive for COVID- 19 .
A Justice of the Supreme Court , Justice Ibrahim Saulawa , disclosed this at the unveiling of the national headquarters of the Muslim Lawyers ’ Association of Nigeria in Abuja .
He said the CJN was receiving treatment in Dubai , the United Arab Emirates.
The CJN was conspicuously absent from Monday ’ s new legal year ceremony of the Supreme Court during which 72 new Senior Advocates of Nigeria were sworn in .
In his absence , the event was presided by the next most senior Justice of the Supreme Court , Justice Olabode Rhodes – Vivour.
The House of Representatives has called for the immediate suspension of the controversial Special Works Scheme of the Federal Government.
The National Assembly and the Federal Ministry of Labour , Employment and Productivity had clashed over the recruitment of 774 , 000 workers for the scheme.
At the plenary , the House asked the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget , and National Planning not to fund the scheme, which is billed to take off in January 2021 .
The National Assembly had appropriated N 52 bn for the exercise in the 2020 Appropriation Act . It was to begin in November .
The House also faulted the removal of the Director- General of the National Directorate of Employment, Dr Nasiru Argungu , who had backed the parliament in the controversy.
The House urged the President , Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd . ) , to reverse himself on Argungu ’ s sacking.
The Minister of State , Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo , had since appointed Argungu ’ s replacement in the order of the President .
The World Bank has approved Nigeria’s request for a $1.5 billion loan.
The bank said the facility was prepared jointly with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA).
“This country partnership framework will guide our engagement for the next five years in supporting the government of Nigeria’s strategic priorities by taking a phased and adaptive approach,” Shubham Chaudhuri, World Bank country director for Nigeria said.
“To realize its long-term potential, the country has to make tangible progress on key challenges and pursue some bold reforms. Our engagement will focus on supporting Nigeria’s efforts to reduce poverty and promote sustained private sector-led growth.”
In a statement, the Bretton Wood institution said the facility is a five-year country partnership framework (CPF) that will last from 2021 to 2024.
The loan will focus on four areas of engagement namely Investing in human capital, promoting jobs and economic transformation and diversification, enhancing resilience, and strengthening the foundations of the public sector.
The Senate has summoned the Minister of Defence , the service chiefs , and heads of the Nigerian Police Force and the Department of State Service over the unending insecurity situation in the country .
The resolution followed a motion moved by Senator Bello Mandiya from Katsina State on the abduction of about 330 students of a secondary school in the state recently by unknown bandits .
The red chamber also urged the President , Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd . ) , to implement the report of the Senate Committee on Security challenges without further delay .
Members of the upper chamber in their various contributions to the motion , specifically , passed a vote of no confidence in the various heads of security agencies in the country over their inability to prevent the abduction of the innocent children .
They also expressed deep frustration that Buhari had consistently ignore all resolutions passed by the Senate on the issue of insecurity in the country.
They insisted that the nation’ s chief security officer should sack the service chiefs without further delay .
New intakes into the Lagos State University, LASU, Ojo, will pay the sum of N67, 048.50k as fees in the coming academic year.
This is against the N25,000 paid by stale students and the increase is about 168.2 per cent.
However, it was gathered that students who would be in level 200 and above when the new session starts next year, would still pay the old rate of N25,000.
Students in that category would pay the N25,000 tuition until they graduate.
The Coordinator, Centre for Information Press and Public Relations, Mr Ademola Adekoya, confirmed that the new rate would apply to only new intakes.
The university was recently ranked the second-best in the country by the Time Higher Education, THE.
The Federal Government has said it has no plans to introduce new taxes or increase the current ones in 2021 .
FG said , on the contrary , it is making efforts to reduce the tax burden on Nigerians due to the current economic crises occasioned by the COVID- 19 pandemic and the fall in the prices of crude oil.
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed , stated this is Abuja at a public hearing organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Finance on the Finance Bill 2020 .
The minister added , “ We also need to defer tax rate increases to the domestic economic sufficiently recover and reduce the compliance burden on tax payers in line with the ease of doing business reforms
“ The second principle is the need to reform fiscal incentives policies to help reduce proliferation of fiscal incentives by carefully assessing cost vs benefit of tax incentives and prioritize job creation , growth, and incentives .
“ The government also need closer coordination of monetary , trade and fiscal, adding that this is necessary so that government will be able to align existing tax incentives for lending to agriculture with the recent CBN moratorium and interest rate reduction for agriculture and real sector loans, reform the stamp duty level on banking transaction and make provisions that will help harness funds in form of unclaimed dividends and unclaimed bank balance that has been sitting idle . ”
President Muhammadu Buhari has left Abuja for Daura, Katsina State for a week-long private visit.
A statement by presidential spokesman, Malam Garba Shehu, said the aircraft conveying the president from Abuja landed at the Umaru Musa Yar’Adua International Airport, Katsina where he was received by Governor Aminu Bello Masari, his deputy, Mannir Yakubu, senior government officials and heads of security agencies in the state.
The statement said upon arriving Daura, Buhari was received at the helipad by the Emir, Alhaji Umar Faruk Umar and members of the Emirate Council followed by a parade of colourful horse riders and courtiers.
The statement said Buhari, while in Daura, would carry out a number of private engagements but would virtually participate in the meeting of the Federal Executive Council on Wednesday to be presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities said it has not suspended its ongoing nine – month – old strike.
Dr . Lazarus Maigoro , Chairman of the University of Jos Chapter of ASUU disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Jos.
“ It must be categorically stated here that ASUU never signed any agreement to suspend the strike but agreed on timelines for government to implement certain aspects of the issues in contention.
“ For instance , one of the issues agreed was that all the six to nine months withheld salaries and check -off dues of ASUU members will be released by Dec . 9 , but the date has passed and nothing was done .
“ The N 40 billion earned academic allowances and N 30 billion funding for revitalisation will also be released by Dec . 11 , among other issues , but till now, none has been fulfilled.
“ The next thing is that we heard Dr Chris Ngige , the Minister of Labour and Employment , telling the public that ASUU agreed to suspend the strike , ” he said .
“ He was quoted to have said the government had fulfilled its part of the gentleman agreement it entered with ASUU on Nov. 27 .
“ He was also quoted to have claimed that payment of the public university lecturers ’ salaries being withheld would require presidential clearance due to the prevailing “ No work, no pay ” rule .
“ It is important for Nigerians to note that salaries of lecturers of federal universities , who refused to enroll in the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS ) were stopped in February before they went on strike in March .
“ It should , however , be noted too that IPPIS and salary stoppage were not among the demands of ASUU but was introduced by the government as a distraction , ” he noted .
The President , Major General Muhammadu Buhari ( retd . ) , has failed to appear before the House of Representatives .
Buhari had expressed his readiness to appear before the House while responding to the invitation to him last week to address Nigerians on the growing insecurity in the country.
The House had summoned the President after a long debate on the recent slaughtering of 43 rice farmers in Borno State by Boko Haram .
Strong indications had, however , emerged on Tuesday that pressure was being mounted on Buhari especially by state governors , at a meeting with the President , to shun the House.
The Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation , Abubakar Malami ( SAN ) , had also on Wednesday said the National Assembly lacked the powers to summon the President to speak on security matters, a claim that has generated wide criticisms .
The Nigerian Communications Commission has directed Mobile Network Operators to immediately suspend the sale and activation of new SIM cards to allow an audit of the Subscriber Registration Database .
The Director , Public Affairs at NCC, Dr . Ikechukwu Adinde , in a statement , said it was absolutely necessary for operators to comply until the audit exercise had been concluded .
According to him , Minister of Communications and Digital Economy , Dr Isa Pantami, directed the commission to embark on an audit of the Subscriber Registration Database .
He , however , said an exemption might be granted following approval from the Federal Government through the commission .
He warned that non – compliance with the directive would be met with strict sanctions , including the possibility of withdrawal of operating license .
Adinde said the audit would help to consolidate the achievement of the SIM Card registration exercise .
The director explained that the objective of the audit exercise was to ensure compliance to set quality standards and requirements by mobile network operators .
According to him , the directive became necessary in view of the preponderance of pre – registered SIMs with the attendant security implications associated with the use of same to facilitate criminal activities.
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