UN Chief Sends Message To Tinubu

United Nations (UN) Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has commented on the inauguration of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as Nigeria’s next president after Muhammadu Buhari.

Addressing newsmen at the UN headquarters in New York, the Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, Stephane Dujarric, congratulated Nigeria, the newly sworn-in president particularly, for the history made.

According to her, Guterres believes that “Nigeria is an important partner of the United Nations, has an important role to play in the promotion of sustainable development, in the promotion of peace and security in the region and beyond.”

Dujarric said the UN looks forward to deepening the ties with Nigeria under Tinubu’s administration.

In a related development, the Guterres also congratulated President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on his re-election as President of the Republic of Türkiye.

The UN chief said he looks forward to further strengthening the cooperation between Turkiye and the United Nations.

Stop Misleading Nigerians, Tinubu Did Not Remove Fuel Subsidy – Keyamo Warns Media

Meanwhile, former Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, has slammed a section of the media claiming that President Bola Tinubu removed fuel subsidy.

He described the reports as mischievous. According to Keyamo, Tinubu’s administration simply inherited a regime with no subsidy provision in the 2023 Appropriation Act from June.

Speaking via Twitter, the former Minister asked subsidy advocates to convince the Nigerian people why President Tinubu should start on a note of illegality by promising to reintroduce something the law has taken away.

He urged those against its removal to convince Nigerians that the $10 billion initially allocated as the fuel subsidy would not jumpstart the economy when channelled into other sectors.

His words read: “A section of the Press is mischievously twisting the narrative to read that TINUBU’s GOVERNMENT HAS REMOVED SUBSIDY. That is NOT CORRECT. TINUBU’s govt has merely inherited a regime where there was no provision for subsidy in the 2023 Appropriation Act as of June 2023 and the Petroleum Industry Act which is now extant, has no provision for subsidy. President Tinubu merely acknowledged this state of affairs in his inaugural speech at Eagle Square.

“So any advocate of subsidy should convince the Nigerian people why President Tinubu should start on a note of illegality by promising to reintroduce something which the law has taken away. They should also convince the Nigerian people why President Tinubu should embark on a present illegality that gulped $10 billion of our scarce or unavailable resources in 2022 alone.

“Those claiming to defend the right or welfare of workers should convince the Nigerian people that $10 billion injected into the economy yearly will not jumpstart the economy enough as to create massive jobs and even increase the same minimum wage they complain about.

“That is the conversation the Nigerian people are prepared to have now.”