Five things to know to start your Monday

President Buhari summons emergency security meeting

President Muhammadu Buhari will on Monday in Abuja meet with security chiefs to further review and strengthen the security network in the country. This comes after the US issued alerts about imminent terror attacks on the nation’s capital.

Garba Shehu, the president’s spokesman, revealed this in a statement issued on Sunday.

He said that a meeting scheduled to commission the new National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) Technology and Innovation Complex has been rescheduled for the security meeting.

A meeting that would brainstorm to chart the way forward to deal with the mounting terror threat in the country, especially as the 2023 general election draws nearer.

“The commissioning of the NASENI complex will be held at a later date,’’ Shehu stated.

President Buhari had on Friday advised the nation’s security establishments and Nigerians to continue to be vigilant and not to panic.

Read also: Abuja terror alerts: Buhari urges Nigerians not to panic

Commercial drivers in Lagos to suspend transport services for 7 days

Commercial drivers in Lagos State, under the aegis of the Joint Drivers Welfare Association of Nigeria (JDWAN), have issued a 7-day boycott of transport services warning strike against the arbituary extortion of their members in the guise of paying levies imposed by officials of the Lagos State government.

The seven-day boycott is expected to kick-off on Monday, October 31, 2022, and will end on November 6, 2022.

In a statement signed by Akintade Abiodun, the National Leader of JDWAN complained bitterly about the several illegal fees paid by his members, a fee that he described as illegal and pure extortion of its members. A situation they see as a dangerous vehicle for increasing the state’s high cost of living.

The group reminded all that it had explored legal options to put an end to several extortions by the state government when it obtained a judgement from the Federal High Court. A judgement which mandated the state government to stop the illegal levies on its members.

Unfortunately, the group announced that the Lagos State government had refused to stop the illegal levies, putting more constraint on the incomes of its members. A situation, they claim, has compelled them to toil on this part.

Osinbajo, former Colombia president, AfDB lead billion-dollar carbon market

The Federal Government of Nigeria is championing a billion dollar carbon market on the African continent.

In a statement on Sunday in Abuja, Lolade Akande, the Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, disclosed this information.

He said, “It is an innovative climate change solution which will create, over the period of energy transition, millions of new jobs in Nigeria alone, according to estimates of international experts.”

The Federal Government said that the project is part of its efforts to achieve the global net-zero emissions target. A situation that is being driven by the high number of natural disasters caused by global warming.

The vice president is a member of the recently-formed international Steering Committee for the Africa Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI), with the objective of facilitating the emergence and growth of the market in Africa.

Other members of the Committee of the ACMI, which will be announced early in November at the COP27 meeting in Egypt, are Ivan Duque Marquez, the former President of Colombia, Akinwumi Adesina, the President of the African Development Bank.

Members include representatives from the United Nations, USAID, the Gates Foundation, and other international private sector players.

BPE explains inability to pay N1.8b severance benefits to SAHCOL ex-workers

The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) says the compulsory contribution to the Treasury Single Account (TSA) is preventing it from paying N1.8 billion in severance packages to the ex-staff of the Skypower Aviation Handling Company Limited (SAHCOL) since 2018.

According to NAN, Tajudeen Oduniyi, the bureau’s Director for Post Transaction Management, made this known in a letter with reference number: BPE/PTM/NUATE/11/2022/M10.01 in Lagos on Sunday.

Oduniyi said that its contribution to the TSA stopped it from fulfilling the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) reached with the former workers in 2018.

He also said all entreaties to Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, to ensure the release of the funds proved abortive.

The Federal Government compelled all ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) to contribute 25 percent of their revenues to the TSA through a policy in 2015.

Soon after, the government increased the contribution to 40 percent, putting additional strain on the MDAs.

NAN reported that its officials said BPE reached an agreement with the former 982 staff of SAHCOL on Nov. 2, 2018, after which it inaugurated a negotiation committee to ensure the implementation of the MoU.

He said the organisation has written to the finance minister for funds to settle the retrenched workers but is still awaiting a reply.

Lula da Silva clinch victory in Brazil election

Luiz Inácio da Silva has won Brazil’s fiercest presidential election, defeating incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro.

In an election that pundits called the most heated in the country’s more than two-decade love affair with democracy.

According to the country’s election authority, Lula secured 50.8 percent of the vote compared with 49.2 percent for Bolsonaro on Sunday.

“First of all, I’d like to thank all the comrades that are here with me. We had a fight with the machine of the state, not just a candidate, who tried to block us from winning this election. For everyone who went to vote, I want to thank you,” Lula, 77, told a cheering crowd of supporters.

Bolsonaro had been leading throughout the first half of the vote count and, as soon as Lula overtook him, cars in the streets of downtown Sao Paulo began honking their horns.

People in the streets of Rio de Janeiro’s Ipanema neighbourhood could be heard shouting, “It turned!”

“He’s the best for the poor, especially in the countryside,” said retired government worker Luiz Carlos Gomes, 65, who hails from Maranhao state in the poor northeast region. “We were always starving before him.”

Al-jazeera reported that this year’s presidential election is Brazil’s most polarised election since its return to democracy, with Lula, a former union leader, defeating Bolsonaro, a former army captain.

Many were unsure if Bolsonaro would concede defeat after he criticised the voting system as fraud-prone, following the example of his mentor, ex-US President Donald Trump.

The CBN Governor does not need to subject himself to the Finance Minister, says Kingsley Moghalu. But he believes Emefiele’s not informing the minister about the redesigning of the naira notes might be a signal of a frosty relationship.