Five things to know to start your Tuesday

Ondo to spend N76.97bn on infrastructure in 2023

Emmanuel Igbasan, the Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, said on Monday that the Ondo State Government would spend N76.97 billion on infrastructural development in 2023.

Igbasan, at a news briefing on the analysis of the state’s approved budget for 2023 in Akure, said the amount accounted for 27.9 percent of the total budget.

Igbasan explained that capital expenditure would gulp N146.14 billion, recurrent expenditure would get N97.69 billion, and N32.15 billion was earmarked for others.

The commissioner said that public finance would swallow N56.59 billion, which amounted to 20.5 percent of the budget, while education would get N41.16 billion, or 14.9 percent.

Health will receive N23. 99 billion, which is 8.7 percent of the budget, while agriculture will gulp N18. 86 billion, which is exactly 6.8 percent.

Igbasan explained that the 2023 budget was based on inputs received during town hall meetings held in all nine federal constituencies “in consonance with other high-level documents of the state.”

2023: INEC disowns purported final list of candidates

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has disassociated itself from a purported final list of candidates for the 2023 general elections, said to have been released on Sunday.

Festus Okoye, the National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, released a statement on Monday debunking such a list, claiming that the purported list is fake and that its original list was released in September 2022.

“The attention of the commission has been drawn to reports widely circulated by a section of the media today, Monday, January 9, that the final list of candidates was released on our website on Sunday, January 8.

“The commission wishes to state categorically that no new publication of the final list of candidates was released as reported. The public should therefore discountenance the story.’’

Okoye said that, for the record, the final list of candidates for the 2023 general elections was published at least 150 days before the day of the election in compliance with the provision of Sec. 32(1) of the Electoral Act 2022.

“Accordingly, the final list for presidential and national assembly elections was published on Sept. 20, 2022, while that of governorship and state assembly elections was published two weeks later on Oct. 4, 2022.

INEC not leaving anything to chance on election security – Yakubu

Professor Mahmood Yakubu has promised that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will ensure adequate security is provided for election personnel, materials, and processes in the 2023 general elections.

The INEC Chairman, who was represented by the National Commissioner and Chairman, Board of Electoral Institute (BEI), Professor Abdullahi Zuru, stated this at “the validation workshop of election security training resources’’ in Abuja on Monday.

Yakubu said that election security was significant to the commission given the current insecurity challenges in various parts of the country and the fact that National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members constituted the core of the Polling Unit election officials.

He said that if the insecurity was not monitored and dealt with decisively, it could ultimately culminate in the cancellation and/or postponement of elections in sufficient constituencies to hinder the declaration of election results and precipitate a constitutional crisis.

NNPP inaugurates 2023 Presidential Campaign Council

The New Nigeria Peoples’ Party (NNPP) on Monday inaugurated its 2023 Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), known as Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso (RMK2023 PCC), for the success of the party in the 2023 presidential election.

Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, the NNPP Presidential Candidate, said during the council’s inauguration in Abuja that the NNPP would continue to work for a new and better Nigeria, which would begin on May 29.

Kwankwaso said that the “RMK 2023 Presidential Campaign Council (PCC)’’ was made up of four organs, including the PCC, the Management of the PCC, the Board of Advisors, and the Committees of the PCC.

He said that all the organs would be working in sync for the success of the NNPP in the 2023 presidential elections.

He urged all Nigerians, especially NNPP members and support groups such as the Kwankwasiyya and the TNM, to join the movement and help mobilise support and votes for the party.

Kwankwaso said that the “Presidential Road Campaign’’ had visited all the states of the federation with the exception of three states.

He said that the party deliberately chose to do the road campaign to avail itself of the difficulties that Nigerian road users were living with across the country.

Bolsonaro in Florida hospital: 1,500 supporters detained after Brasilia riots

Donald Trump-like former Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, was admitted to a hospital in Florida on Monday with stomach pains as 1,500 of his supporters were rounded up in Brasilia after storming key buildings in the capital over the weekend.

According to Reuters, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a leftist who took office on January 1 after defeating Bolsonaro in an October election, vowed to bring those responsible to justice. He accused rioters of trying to overthrow democracy and questioned why the army had not discouraged calls for a military coup outside their barracks.

On Sunday, angry mobs rampaged through Congress, the Supreme Court, and presidential offices, smashing windows and destroying furniture and artwork in the worst attack on state institutions since Brazil’s return to democracy in the 1980s.

Bolsonaro, who flew to the United States days before his term in office ended, went to a hospital in Orlando on Monday, complaining of intestinal pains related to a stabbing he suffered during the 2018 election campaign. His doctor said he has an intestinal blockage that is not serious and would likely not need surgery.

Bolsonaro, in an interview with CNN Brasil, said he had planned to stay in the United States until the end of January but now plans to go back to Brazil sooner to see his doctors.

“I intend to bring forward my return because in Brazil the doctors already know about my problem of intestinal obstruction due to the stab wound,” Bolsonaro said, according to a report on the CNN Brasil website.