Five things to know to start your Monday

2023: Osinbajo sets to declare for presidency race

Prof Yemi Osinbajo, Nigeria’s vice president is set to formally declare his interest to join the presidency race for 2023.

Osinbajo made known his plan to All Progressives Congress (APC) governors Sunday at a dinner he hosted ahead of the party’s primaries in May.

At least 12 of the APC governors, including Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna), Dapo Abiodun (Ogun), Abdullahi Sule (Nasarawa), Babagana Zulum (Borno) and Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos) were at the dinner, it was gathered.

The Vice-President is expected to release a video of his formal declaration on Monday on all social media platforms where he will seek the support of all Nigerians for his bid to replace outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari.

Already, Osinbajo support groups have opened a campaign and strategy office for him in the Wuse 2 area of Abuja.

Read also: 2023: Group budgets N95m for Osinbajo’s presidential nomination form

West Africa oil still unloved despite post-Ukraine supply woes

Despite the supply shortage and resultant price hike on crude oil as a result of the unprovoked attack by Russia on Ukraine, sentiment over Nigerian and Angola crude oil hasn’t gotten any better.

While some quarters in Europe have strongly clamored for a shift to sub-Saharan oil from Nigeria and Angola to replace that of Russia, many countries are still undecided about such a decision.

Bloomberg reported that a huge amount of April crude oil cargo was yet to be acquired following a demand shift from the three biggest buyers of Nigerian and Angolan crude.

China, which before the COVID-19 lockdown bought as much as 84% of Angola’s crude, has mellowed down as the country grapples with a resurgence of the deadly virus. For more than a week now, most factories have been put under lock and key and production has almost grounded to a halt. Angola is currently sourcing for buyers of its crude as income plummets and fears of a recession stare at the country.

India, which used to be Nigeria’s biggest crude oil market, has doubled down on demand following the Russia-Ukraine conflict as they seem to be well supplied. Bloomberg reported that India is already overstocked with Urals from Russia.

Europe is taking a more cautious approach as they see cargo prices as way too high.

Unfortunately, several shipments of Nigerian crude have been unable to secure buyers or bids, leaving the Nigerian crude with an uncertain future.

However, demand for West African crude may go up very soon as Russian crude in Europe dwindles and China hopes to end the COVID-19 lockdown.

Elon Musk Suggests making dogecoin a payment option for Twitter Blue service

Elon Musk, the boss of Tesla and Spacex, has said that Dogecoin (DOGE) could be used to pay for the Twitter Blue subscription service.

Musk, who recently invested over $2 billion in Twitter, making him the company’s biggest shareholder, promised afterward that he was going to make some “significant improvements” to the company.

Musk has been very active on the social media microblogging platform, asking his followers to let him know of some of the changes they expect to happen.

One of the areas of improvement he had promised to carry out was the authenticated checkmark.

According to nes.bitcoin.com, he had “suggested that everyone who signs up for the Twitter Blue subscription service and pays $3 a month should get an authentication checkmark”.

The current price of Dogecoin spiked upwards today as it traded from yesterday’s $0.14ervice to $0.14ervice.

Many expect it to change the way Twitter operates.

Crude Oil down by more than 2.5%

This morning, WTI crude futures fell by more than 2.5% to below $96 per barrel.

According to tradingeconomics.com, this decline follows news of an announcement of a major consumer plan to release crude from strategic reserves and the current lockdown in China.

The Chinese authorities had implemented a “zero-tolerance” policy for Covid-19 as a way to contain the spread of the virus. As a result, demand for crude oil to power factories in China had dwindled resulting in a drop in the price of crude oil.

The price was also reacting to news of IEA member states planning to release 60 million barrels over the next six months, with the US adding to that amount as part of its 180 million barrels released in March, Reuters reported.

UK went goes dark for 10mins on April 10

An online protest movement targeted to reject the current rise in energy and gas bills swept across the UK over the weekend as many homes turned off all their appliances and went dark for exactly 10 minutes only.

According to Yorkshirelive, the big power was expected to take place yesterday, April 10, 10 pm for only 10mins. They believe that a protest of this magnitude will make energy companies “sit up and take notice”.

Gas and electricity rates have increased by nearly 54% after the price ceiling was changed on April 1, Yorkshirelive reported. With rising fuel and diesel prices, rising food costs, and rises in council tax, water, and mobile phone bills across the board, as well as a 10% increase in National Insurance from multimillionaire US chancellor Rishi Sunak, it’s fair to say people throughout the UK are feeling the pinch.

This protest is believed to draw the attention of the British government towards finding a solution to address these fundamental issues that have the potential to cause “social upheaval” if the cost of living problem worsened, Martin Lewis said.