Nigerian newspaper review for April 30: Brace for new minimum wage payment - Osinbajo tells governors

The main headlines of mainstream Nigerian newspapers of Tuesday, April 30, are focused on the new national minimum wage, the race for the Senate presidency in the incoming ninth National Assembly, the call made to governors-elect by Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara state on the need to prepare for recession in 2020 among others.

The Nation reports that the race for the Senate presidency in the incoming ninth National Assembly has given some chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC) a responsibility to mediate among aspirants.

Some APC chieftains were said to have met with one of the aspirants for the office of the Senate president, Danjuma Goje, on the need to respect the wishes of President Muhammadu and the APC.

Recall that President Buhari and the APC endorsed Senator Ahmad Lawan to pilot the affairs of the Senate when the ninth National Assembly is inaugurated in June.

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Goje was said to have told the APC chieftains that he was interested in hearing from the president so as to find out what the latter wants him to do.

The Punch reports that the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) and the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) faulted call made to governors-elect by Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara state.

Governor Yari, who is also chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, called on the governors-elect to be ready for recession in 2020, which he said may not end until the third quarter of 2021.

President of MAN, Mansur Ahmed, said: “I don’t know from which position he is speaking, whether he is an economist. Unless something out of the ordinary happens, I do not foresee another recession.”

On his own part, the director general of LCCI, Muda Yusuf, said: “For anybody to make such a statement there must be parameters. The biggest driver of Nigeria’s economic performance is an external factor, which is the oil price and unless Yari has information that there is going to be a major drop in the price of oil, then I do not agree with his projection."

This Day reports that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo advised state governors to look inwards for ways to generate internal revenue to enable them pay the new minimum wage of N30,000.

The vice president said states must strive in the next few years to earn more in internally generated revenue.

He said: “We must more effectively collect Value Added Tax and increase our agricultural output, work with the federal government to make broadband infrastructure available all over the country, so our young people anywhere in the country can do jobs from anywhere in the world, from their villages in any corner of Nigeria.”

According to Vanguard, the United Nations and National Population Commission (NPC), on Monday, April 29, disagreed over Nigeria’s current population figure.

In its 2019 state of the world population report, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), said Nigeria's population stands at 201 million.

The NPC, however, said the UN’s figure was a mere assumption.

The director in charge of census in the NPC, Usman Kolapo, said: “The fact is that the figure is not as high as that but it is close to it. The UN is just using the basis of the 2006 census to arrive at the figure, taking into account both birth and death rates, apparently using high variant of calculation, which could arrive at that figure.

“But if you use the medium or low variant of calculation of birth and death rates, the figure cannot be up to that. If we had a census, we would have known our true population. We cannot categorically say that our population is up to 201 million.’’

The Guardian reports that the minister of industry, trade and investment, Okechukwu Enelamah, and the acting managing director of the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA), Terhemba Nongo, were ordered by the Senate to immediately return N14.3 billion of the agency’s 2017 budget votes to the treasury.

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According to a letter by the chairman of the Senate committee on trade and investment, Mohammed Nakudu Sabo, there would be a “serious legislative action” in the event of non-compliance.

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