Tension! Emir of Kano issues strong warning to Buhari – Newspaper Review

The emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has warned that if President Buhari is not careful and does not retrace his steps, he runs the risk of ending up like the former president, Goodluck Jonathan.

That was the main thrust of the front page of the Punch newspaper this morning. This Day newspaper focuses on the effect the Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy is having on at least nine Nigerian banks and dollar sales. Below is a quick review of the major stories on the front page of many newspapers today.

Vanguard reports that yesterday, August 24, the government warned governors against reducing the remunerations and hours of work of workers. The warning came against the backdrop of actions of Imo and Benue state governments to compel workers in their employ to work for some days and go to the farm for other days of the week.

While Imo asked its workers to work in offices for three days of the week and go to farm for the remaining two days, Benue set aside Fridays as the day for all civil servants to go to the farm, as part of efforts to reduce wage bills and diversify their economies through agriculture.

Besides, Imo state government also cut the monthly salary of civil servants in the state by 30 per cent, all in a bid to cut recurrent cost.

Similarly, Nasarawa state government had been at loggerheads with its workers over months of unpaid salaries, which culminated in the killing of two workers as civil servants protested at Government House, Lafia, a few weeks ago.

This Day reports that the CBN enforced the sanction imposed on banks that failed to return Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)/Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Company dollar deposits to the federal government’s TSA by not selling dollars to them when it intervened on the interbank foreign exchange market yesterday, August 24.

The CBN on Tuesday barred nine banks from participating in the FX market for not remitting a total of $2.334 billion to the TSA.

The Daily Sun reports that Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, emir of Kano, says the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari must stop behaving like that of Goodluck Jonathan, else it would end up the way of the previous administration.

Sanusi said this on Wednesday, August 24, while delivering a lecture at the ongoing 15th meetings of the joint planning board and national council on development planning in Kano, titled ‘Nigeria in search of new growth model’.

He attributed the current economic recession in the country to the failure of past administrations to diversify the economy.

Sanusi also spoke about the urgent need for the country to return to the drawing board and expand the economy through wise investments capable of yielding economic growth and development.

He said the current economic policy and its inconsistency does not favor business and investment in the country, and warned Buhari that if he does not act fast, his could end like Jonathan’s.

READ ALSO: Economic crisis: Emir Sanusi sends warning to Buhari

The Punch reports that the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Mohammadu Sanusi, says the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration may end up like the immediate past President Jonathan’s administration if it fails to retrace its steps on some policies.

Buhari had defeated Jonathan at the 2015 presidential poll in what was described as a total rejection of the Jonathan-led administration by Nigerians.

Sanusi, who was the chairman of the 15th meeting of the Joint Planning Board and National Council on Development Planning in Kano state on Wednesday,August 24, argued that the failure of the Buhari-led government to create employment opportunities for “the over 80 million youths in the country,” made terrorism attractive to the unemployed.

The Nation reports that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has launched investigations into how the Army spent a N5billion vehicles purchase grant received from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).

The grant was provided by ONSA to purchase vehicles onstensibly for the monitoring of the 2015 general elections.
But sources said the purchase of the vehicles allegedly carried out by the Department of Training and Operations was bogged with fraud and illegalities. There were no award letters, contract agreements, technical assessment reports, delivery notes and receipt vouchers.

The Department of Army Logistics became aware of the quantity and types of vehicles on October 29, last year — about seven months after they were bought.

Besides, the EFCC team is looking into alleged spending of $5,938,897.18(N2, 369,619,903) between September 3 and 13, 2014  and the panel has shortlisted 25 of the 54 suspects for interrogation.

READ ALSO: Fast all in one — UC Browser

Nigerian Tribune reports that the Federal Executive Council (FEC), on Wednesday, approved the 2017 to 2019 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), which recommended that the 2017 budget be predicated on oil price benchmark of $42.5 per barrel and N290 exchange rate to a dollar.

Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma, who stated this while briefing State House correspondents after a regular meeting of FEC, presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, said the document would consequently be transmitted to the National Assembly for necessary legislative action, as the next three budget would derive from it.

The Guardian reports that Nigeria has lost its status as the aviation hub in West Africa to Ghana, a neighbouring country.

Already, the revenue that accrued to Nigeria from the fuelling of aircraft and accommodation of cabin crews of foreign airlines has been taken over by Ghana, which now provides these services.

The situation is partly attributable to the 100 per cent increase in the price of aviation fuel in Nigeria, while Ghana slashed the same product by 20 per cent.

Besides, regulatory agencies like the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) are losing revenue.

The price of Aviation Turbine Kerosene (ATK), also called aviation fuel or Jet-A1, rose from N120 some months ago to N240 per litre since the CBN introduced the flexible foreign exchange policy.

Aviation fuel is 100 per cent imported, which subjects it to the vagaries of foreign exchange, especially the United States dollar. With the exchange rate around N350 to $1, aviation fuel in Nigeria has become one of the most expensive on the continent.

The post Tension! Emir of Kano issues strong warning to Buhari – Newspaper Review appeared first on Nigeria News today & Breaking news | Read Naij.com 24/7.