NEWS
Tinubu Trying Hard, Inherited Near- Bankrupt Nation— Tafawa-Balewa
Dr Abdul-Jhalil Tafawa Balewa, a former PDP presidential aspirant, has urged Nigerians to be patient with President Bola Tinubu,saying he inherited a near-bankrupt nation ,but trying hard to put things right.Tafawa-Balewa made the statement in an interview on Sunday in Lagos.According to him, if a nation is near zero, rescuing it and setting it on a path of recovery is always very hard.
He,however,said the president needed to do much more to reposition the country and address its many challenges. Tafawa-Balewa urged Tinubu to reduce the cost of governance to free up resources for development as a step towards putting things right.The politician also urged Tinubu to strengthen his cabinet with technocrats that could help actualise his development agenda for Nigeria.“He (President) needs to be able to move with the times and put people that have moved out or have learned new technologies to be able to manage the different ministries.“I think we have too many ministries, about 48, that need to be slimmed down because a lot of money is being used to run these ministries.“We just need to be able to slim down the number of ministers,” he added.Tafawa-Balewa urged the president to work harder on security to end kidnappings ,insurgency and other threats“We have to improve our security so that our farmers can go to the farms. We are going to have a burst of food production.“Without security, we cannot improve our food production right now. We also have technology for preservation and distribution of food.“We have written so many times about using the gamma radiation facility to be able to improve our food preservation and distribution but nobody wants to listen.“We have one of the largest gamma radiation facilities in the world and definitely the largest in Africa.“We are not using it,” Tafawa-Balewa,a Consultant Nuclear Chemist ,specialising in food preservation, said. (NAN)NEWS
Customs Intercept Contraband Worth N510.92m in Two Conths
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Federal Operations Unit Zone C, says it intercepted contrabands with a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N510.92 million between July 15th and September 15th, 2024.The zone covers the six states in the South-South geopolitical zone and the five states in the Southeast geopolitical zone.
This is contained in a statement signed by Jerry Attah, Public Relations Officer, NCS, Zone C, and made available to journalists on Wednesday. According to the statement, Comptroller Michael Ugbagu, NCS, Zone C, gave the statistics while showcasing the seized contraband to relevant regulatory agencies at the Government Warehouse in Edo.Ugbagu said that the zone also recovered the sum of N25.57 million from demand notices raised based on some infractions noticed, making a cumulative sum of N536.49 million recorded within the months under review.“The DPV was derived from our seized goods, which include 49,699 sachets of various brands of tramadol and 3,350 bottles of various cough syrups with codeine without an NAFDAC number.“1,015 sacks of dry donkey meat and skin, 75 jumbo bales of second-hand clothing, 463 cartons of foreign spaghetti, 269 pieces of used pneumatic tires, and 56 cartons of smuggled foreign tomato paste.“More worrisome is the interception of 49,699 sachets of various brands of tramadol and 3,350 bottles of various cough syrups with codeine without NAFDAC registration numbers.”He noted that the cough syrup with codeine and tramadol without NAFDAC registration numbers, if not intercepted, could have had adverse effects on youths.He added that the items were mostly intercepted along the Ewu-Okada/Benin expressways based on credible intelligence. (NAN)NEWS
APC Forum Decries Deplorable Condition of Federal Roads
The Forum of Stakeholders of the All Progressive Congress (APC) has decried the deplorable condition of some federal roads in Nigeria. Alhaji Saleh Zazzaga, the North-Central Chairman of the forum, said this in an interaction with newsmen on Wednesday in Jos. Zazzaga described some of the federal roads as ”death traps”, particularly those within the north-central region.
He said that some of the deplorable roads in the region include Jos-Akwanga, Makurdi-Oturkpo-Otukpa, Makurdi-Ankpa, and Jos-Saminaka. Other roads that needed urgent attention, he said, included Suleja-Minna, Ejule-Otukpa, Ganawuri-Manchok, Lokoja-Abuja, Lapai-Agaie-Bida, Birnin-Gwari-Bokani-Mokwa, Minna-Zungeru-Tegina-Kontagora. ”Currently, the north-central region has the most deplorable roads and highways in the country. ”These deplorable roads have brought severe hardship on the people and lost lives and property through preventable road traffic crashes. ”We call on President Bola Tinubu to intervene and ensure the rehabilitation of these roads because good roads are vital enablers of development,” he said. The chairman also called on governors of states within the region to reconstruct the dilapidated roads and seek refunds from the federal government. ”Though these are largely federal roads, they are located within states, and the beneficiaries are the people of these states. ”So we call on state governments to reconstruct these roads and seek refunds from the federal government,” he added. (NANNEWS
Yuan Strengthens 7. 087 Against Dollar
The central parity rate of the Chinese currency renminbi, or the yuan, strengthened 160 pips to 7.087 against the dollar on Wednesday.This is according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System.In China’s spot foreigners exchange market, the yuan is allowed to rise or fall by two per cent from the central parity rate each trading day.
The central parity rate of the yuan against the dollar is based on a weighted average of prices offered by market makers before the opening of the interbank market each business day. (Xinhua/NAN)