Prince Adewole Adebayo, the Social Democratic Party’s (SDP) candidate for president, says his administration will focus on creating powerful institutions that will aid in limiting governmental excesses.

At a Town Hall Meeting titled “Building Nigeria’s Steel, Petrochemical, and Agroallied Industries,” which was hosted by media giant Arise Television, he made this bold declaration as a guest.

He said that this was nothing new because Alhaji Tafawa Balewa, the country’s then-prime minister, included it in the first development plan for the years 1960 to 1965.

As part of the “import substitution program,” which aimed to lessen the importation of those minerals, Prince Adebayo noted that these plans gave rise to the development of the Ajaokuta Steel Plant, Ajala Steel, and other companies.

He added that the First Republic’s accomplishments were a result of public servant discipline, clearly defined objectives, and a powerful Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The legal authority claimed that the CBN was so powerful that the bank’s former governor stopped General Yakubu Gowon, the country’s head of state at the time, from using money to buy ammunition for the Civil War.

The CBN is currently too weak to stand up to the current administration, and a large portion of the proceeds from the sale of crude oil are missing and unreported.

Addressing the solutions, he stated: “We already have the solution, but I need to establish a government that will make things function. To make it work, the CBN will have complete control over the amount of money in circulation, the price of money, and inflation.

In terms of money spent, my government would also be answerable to the people. In order to sort out deteriorating and unfinished projects, we will also establish project management.
We’ll achieve this by developing an economy that will draw capital to finish those projects and provide a stable exchange rate.

Additionally, he pledged to lower unemployment rates, keep inflation at single digits, and build a social system that will thrive on brains.

The Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) has expressed concern over a bill at the House of Representatives, seeking abolition of local government councils in Nigeria.

Mr Hakeem Ambali, National President, NULGE, said this when he spoke with newsmen in Kano.

Ambali, represented by Mr Aliyu Haruna, NULGE National Treasurer, said abolishing local councils will worsen the security situation in the country.

“A lawmaker from Rivers has sponsored a bill at the House of Representatives seeking to abolish local government councils in Nigeria.

“In spite of the fact that governors have refused to implement the local government autonomy, what we are witnessing now is an attempt to abolish the local government councils in the country. This is a gang up against the masses.

“This is an attempt to bring the country backward. Therefore, we are calling on the National Assembly to look into the issue, which is an attempt to take away what remain for the people at the grassroots.

“I assured you that if the local government autonomy is implemented by the governors, the issue of insecurity would have been a thing of the past, because some security issues can be handled locally,” he said.

Ambali added that once the local government councils were granted full autonomy, socio-economic activities will spring up at the grassroots level.

He said that NULGE had made contact with the leadership of the National Assembly on the issue, adding that if such did not yield good result, it will embark on strike.

Ambali also expressed concern over sack of about 2,000 workers by the Kaduna State government as well as the slashing of workers’ salary by the Kano State government.

The Lagos State House of Assembly at a sitting on Tuesday, passed N1.164 trillion as the 2021 appropriation bill of the state.

The budget was passed after a report on it was presented to the House by Hon. Gbolahan Yishawu (Eti Osa 2), the chairman of a joint committee on Economic Planning and Budget and Finance.

In the budget just passed, the House approved the sum of 460,587,43,741 as recurrent expenditure from the ‘Consolidated Revenue Fund’ and N702,935,416,976 as capital expenditure from ‘Development Revenue Fund’.
The total amount thus passed by the House is put at N1,163,522,460,717 for 2021.

The Speaker, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa specifically said that it was agreed by the lawmakers during parliamentary sessions that the Youth Empowerment Scheme of the Ministry of Agric, O’YES was not yielding the desired results.
Obasa said that same goes for the Coconut Agency, which was recommended for scrapping by the Joint Committee and recommended to be a parastatal under the Ministry of Agric.

He also said that the fund for scholarship awards had to be reduced as recommended by the Committee since the agency could not access the fund voted for them in the 2020 budget.

The sectoral allocations were eventually read by Obasa to the lawmakers, who approved them through voice votes before the budget was eventually passed into law through a voice vote.

The Speaker then thanked all the lawmakers and members of the press for their coverage for the Assembly in the year.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu had on Monday, November 9, 2020, presented budget estimates of N1.155 trillion to the House. The 2021 budget estimates is christened: “Budget of Rekindled Hope.”

The budget estimates is higher than the 2020 budget after it was reduced to N920.5 billion due to challenges of COVID-19 pandemic.
The budget represents N234.5 billion higher than that of 2020 budget after it was reviewed.