Tinubu’s Announcements Upon Petrol Subsidy Removal & more –3rd Aug 2023

Sannu from BA! This is the Rorshok Nigeria Update from the 3rd of August twenty twenty-three A quick summary of what's going down in Nigeria.

Since President Tinubu announced the removal of petrol subsidy, there’s been a lot of complaints from Nigerians over the increase in transportation and the general cost of living. Nearly everything has tripled in price.

On Monday the 31st, the president addressed citizens and announced new measures that the government will take to ease the current hardship in the country.

One of the announcements Tinubu made was the review of the current minimum wage which is 30,000 naira (about forty dollars). The president said that the federal government and the labour unions are working to determine a new minimum wage .

Tinubu also said that the federal government has saved one trillion naira (about one billion dollars) in two months in funds that would have been used for the payment of petrol subsidy.

The president also said that his administration would grant fifty billion naira (about sixty-six thousand dollars) to one million small businesses in the country between up to March twenty twenty-four.

Tinubu said that he ordered the release of 200,000 metric tonnes of grains to households across the country to moderate prices and provided fertilizer, seedlings, and other inputs to farmers who are committed to the country’s food security agenda.

To cut down transportation costs, Tinubu said that the government plans to roll out buses for mass transit at a much more affordable rate. He said that the government will invest 100 billion naira (about 132 thousand dollars) until March twenty twenty-four to acquire three thousand units of twenty-seater buses that will run on compressed natural gas instead of petrol.

Meanwhile, four Nigerian men have been rescued in Brazil after embarking on a fourteen-day voyage in an attempt to migrate from the country. On Tuesday the 1st, the Brazilian police said that the men had been on the ship’s rudder hoping that they would make it to Europe only to be shocked that they arrived in Brazil. The men said that they ran out of food on the tenth day and survived the remaining four days by drinking water from the Atlantic Ocean. The men said that they were very scared and had tied themselves with ropes to prevent them from falling into the ocean, adding that they had been careful to not make a sound so that the crew would not toss them into the sea. Two of the men have been deported back to Nigeria on their requests while the other two have decided to seek asylum in Brazil.

In other news, on Tuesday the 1st, James Cleverly, UK foreign secretary visited Nigeria. His visit was part of a four-day trip to Africa. The UK government said that the foreign secretary visited the country to discuss ways in which partnerships between the two countries can be strengthened and how the UK can improve Nigeria’s economic outlook.

Tinubu asked the UK to work with Nigeria to transport gas to Europe and to partner with the rest of Africa in creating “a competitive, technologically advanced economy that will cater to the needs of all citizens.”

Meanwhile, on Monday the 31st, the World Health Organisation (best known as WHO) said that Nigeria will receive one thousand eight hundred vials of diphtheria antitoxin On Wednesday the 2nd, Walter Mulombo, the WHO country representative, said that Nigeria will also receive erythromycin IV in two weeks’ time. Both drugs are used to treat diphtheria.

However, while that seems to be some good news in the health sector, on the same day, tragedy struck.

Vwaere Diaso, a doctor at Lagos Island General Hospital, died in one of the hospital’s elevators because it fell from the 10th floor.

According to a Twitter user and worker at the hospital who identified herself as Moye, she heard a big crash just a few minutes before she was going to use the lift. The doctor said that engineers came to the scene nearly an hour later and that Diaso kept saying she didn’t want to die.

Moye said that when Diaso was eventually rescued, there was no blood available at the hospital to give her and that the emergency care was poor.

She explained that the elevator has been a source of concern to the doctors for years but complaints to the government and hospital management were never attended to, adding that sometimes pregnant women have to climb ten flights of stairs. Diaso’s death triggered anger and frustration from many medical professionals and other citizens who lamented about the poor state of healthcare in the country. The Lagos state government said it will start an investigation into the matter.

Recall that there was a lot of frustration and complaints from citizens following the increment of school fees in government-owned high schools. Shortly after the increment, federal universities also began to hike their fees by over 100 percent. In anger, the National Association of Nigerian Students earlier threatened to stage a protest if institutions refused to reduce their tuition fees. Addressing the situation on Monday the 31st, Tinubu ordered the federal institutions to stop the unwarranted increase in fees, asking them to comply with the government’s objective of easing the hardship on citizens. Tinubu also lifted all restrictions on student loans so that anyone who needs to access the funds can do so.

Speaking of the president, here’s some good news for residents of Abuja.

On Monday the 31st, a presidency official told TheCable, a Nigerian newspaper, that Tinubu finally moved to Aso Rock on Sunday night - two months after his inauguration. However, on Sunday night, the president was said to have moved to the Glass House, usually a transit accommodation, pending the completion of the renovation of the president’s official residence. Since his inauguration, he had been operating from a private residence in Asokoro but the security measures led to public complaints of heavy traffic that would last for hours as a result of road closures and restrictions. According to TheCable, the president’s official residence would be ready in August. Recall that former President Buhari moved into his official residency three weeks after his inauguration.

In another presidential update, on Wednesday the 2nd, Tinubu said that the Port Harcourt refinery will begin operations by December. He said that production will begin after the ongoing rehabilitation contract between the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (best known as NNPC) Limited and Maire Tecnimont SpA is completed. The Port Harcourt refinery is one of the country’s three oil refineries with the other two in Warri and Kaduna. Recall that in twenty twenty-one, the NNPC started the rehabilitation of the refinery after the federal executive council approved the sum of almost two billion dollars for the project. So far several timelines for the delivery of the project have been set. In September twenty twenty-two, the former minister of state for petroleum resources said that the refinery would become functional by the end of last year and in March, he said that the plant would resume refining activities before the end of the second quarter of twenty twenty-three.

Meanwhile, in the world of sports, the Super Falcons have qualified for the round of sixteen of the ongoing Women’s World Cup. The Nigerians qualified on Monday the 31st after a goalless draw against the Republic of Ireland. With four points from the previous two games, Nigeria needed to simply avoid defeat against Ireland to progress to the knockout stage. The female footballers finished second in the group behind Australia, and are set to play their next game on the 7th of August. Good luck to them!

Aaaaand that’s it for this week! Thanks for joining us!

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