Naija News: Top Nigerian Newspaper Headlines For Today, Monday, 13th May, 2024

Naija News: Top Nigerian Newspaper Headlines For Today, Monday, 13th May, 2024

1. President Bola Tinubu has directed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to halt the implementation of the contentious cybersecurity levy policy and undergo a review.

   This decision comes in the wake of the House of Representatives’ directive last Thursday, urging the CBN to retract its circular mandating all banks to impose a 0.5 per cent cybersecurity levy on electronic transactions nationwide.

2. The capital of Benue State, the Benue State Community Volunteer Guards (BSCVG) successfully apprehended a gun-wielding Fulani herdsman. The incident occurred in the Agboghol community, situated behind the Modern Market, a suburban area of Makurdi.

   The herdsman was found trespassing on farmland with his cattle, armed with a locally fabricated pistol. This arrest follows closely on the heels of a tragic event where James Okoh, the commander of the agro rangers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, lost his life during an operation in the Shaapera community, perpetrated by armed herdsmen in the Gwer West region of the state.

3. The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike, has admitted an error in his assessment of Governor Sim Fubara of Rivers State.

   Wike appealed to both God and his political allies in Rivers State for forgiveness, recognizing his misjudgment.

4. The Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Atiku Bagudu, has defended the policies of President Bola Tinubu, saying they are what Nigeria needs to make progress.

   According to him, the steps and policies President Tinubu is taking at the moment are what Nigeria and its leaders should have taken decades ago.

5. Senate Chief Whip, Ali Ndume, has submitted that the federal government was too much in a hurry over the implementation of the cybersecurity levy.

   He stated that the government failed to examine the nitty gritty of the levy before the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) rushed to publicly announce the implementation.

6. The Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri, has asserted that the country’s ‘lopsided’ federalism practice has hindered the development of states, calling for a review of the revenue derivation formula in line with the practice of fiscal federalism.

   IDOMA VOICE reports that Diri made this known while speaking over the weekend in Houston, Texas, when Ijaws in the United States of America and Canada conferred on him the award of “Icon of Unity and Social Justice” as part of the three-day 2024 convention organized by Ijaw National Congress (INC)-Americas.

7. The Federal Government will receive fresh loan funding from the World Bank, with approval expected for loans totalling $2.25bn on June 13, 2024.

   IDOMA VOICE recalls that the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, at the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank last month, had announced that the nation had qualified for processing a loan, described as ‘virtually a grant’ of $2.25bn from the World Bank at one per cent interest rate.

8. The Port Harcourt-Aba railway line was officially opened for public use on Tuesday, marking the commencement of commercial train services by the Federal Government.

   This milestone, previously delayed twice, saw the Minister of Transportation, Senator Said Alkali, supervising the launch of commercial operations along the 62.0-kilometer route from Port Harcourt to Aba at the Port Harcourt Railway Station.

9. Former President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has insisted that he is no longer involved in partisan politics.
   According to him, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is now his former party, as he is no longer participating in party politics.

10. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has advised the Nigerian government regarding the urgent need to remove what it described as ‘implicit’ subsidies on electricity and fuel, which are projected to consume three per cent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2024, up from one per cent in the previous year.

    IDOMA VOICE reports that the IMF lauded the Federal Government’s efforts to phase out energy subsidies, which it labeled as costly and regressive, in a recent report.