PICTORIAL: Sanwo-Olu hosts new Lagos Speaker Meranda, pledges executive-legislative harmony

The Kano State Governor, Alhaji Abba Kabir Yusuf, has presented a proposed 2025 appropriation budget of N549,160,417,663.00 to the state assembly with a 2024 budget performance of 77 percent. Presenting the budget on Friday at the Chamber of the State Assembly, Governor Yusuf hinted that the capital component of the budget stood at N312,634,912,672.18 billion,
Gov Yusuf presents N549.160bn 2025 budget to Kano assembly

The Kano State Governor, Alhaji Abba Kabir Yusuf, has presented a proposed 2025 appropriation budget of N549,160,417,663.00 to the state assembly with a 2024 budget performance of 77 percent.

Presenting the budget on Friday at the Chamber of the State Assembly, Governor Yusuf hinted that the capital component of the budget stood at N312,634,912,672.18 billion, while the recurrent expenditure is set at N236,525,504,990.82 billion for the 2025 budget.

He said that when the budget is approved by the State Assembly, it is projected to have a capital-to-recurrent ratio of 57:43 percent, respectively.

He noted that most of the capital spending will be in the social and economic sectors to the tune of N461,447,963,240.86.

Governor Yusuf explained that education will receive N168,350,802,346.19 (31.00%), health will receive N90,600,835,766.48 (16.50%), agriculture will receive N21,038,199,190.76 (3.83%), and infrastructure development will receive N70,682,843,744.15 (12.87%).

The governor said that Manufacturing, Commerce, Industry, and Tourism will receive N3,887,338,871.45 (1.22%), Environment and Sanitation will receive N15,523,154,078.47 (2.83%), adding that governance institutions will receive N98,242,089,019.58 (17.57%).

He added that the 2024 budget of N437.3 billion has a general performance standing at 77 percent, with recurrent revenue and expenditure at 65 percent. He also noted that many leakages were blocked, leading to the achievements recorded.

Governor Yusuf expressed concern that 2024 has been a very difficult year for many citizens, leading to protests by Nigerians due to the Federal Government’s economic reforms, price rises, and the dollar exchange rate problems.

He prayed that the August protests would be the last but acknowledged that it served as a big reminder of the need to be there for the youths.

He emphasised that the uncertainty of the youth’s response could be disastrous, prompting the Kano government to rise to the occasion by developing many youth programmes.

Gov Yusuf presents N549.160bn 2025 budget to Kano assembly

Mr Paul Ibe, the media aide to former Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has said President Bola Tinubu’s policies are trial and error. Ibe said Tinubu never had any policy prescriptions, hence the sufferings Nigerians are currently experiencing. He insisted that Tinubu was not prepared for governance because he had no concrete
Nigerians suffering, your policies trial, error – Atiku aide hits Tinubu

Mr Paul Ibe, the media aide to former Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has said President Bola Tinubu’s policies are trial and error.

Ibe said Tinubu never had any policy prescriptions, hence the sufferings Nigerians are currently experiencing.

He insisted that Tinubu was not prepared for governance because he had no concrete economic policy template unlike Atiku that had ‘My Covenant’.

Speaking with News Central, Ibe said: “When Tinubu became president he inherited both assets and liabilities, so he should stop looking back like Lot’s wife; else he turns into a pillar of salt.

“Obasanjo’s administration which Atiku served started the process of subsidy removal, they did tranches of removal and successive administrations like Yar’Adua was expected to take over from them because Obasanjo’s administration believed the gradual approach of the removal would be better instead of one major removal that would have repercussion.

“They had done it twice and the removal was supposed to be continued, unfortunately, we are where we are today.

“Nigerians did not reject Atiku Abubakar, the mandate of Nigerians was stolen by the APC working with criminal INEC and State institutions.

“We are not aware of any presentation that was made policy wise by the Tinubu administration, maybe that is why they are running from pillar to post with their trial and error policies.

“Atiku presented My Covenant with Nigerians; those are his policy prescriptions; and when he unveiled it, he asked Nigerians to make imputes and they were updated.

“We are not aware that Tinubu had any policy prescriptions and if he had we will not be where we are today. They were never prepared for the challenges of governance.

“Tinubu as a candidate knew the state of the economy, he knew the state of the subsidy regime; so you can’t be crying over spilt milk.

“You can’t be a president one day and unable to govern, unable to deal with the challenges of subsidy, of the new forex regime he introduced. They have only themselves to blame for why Nigerians continue to suffer.”

Nigerians suffering, your policies trial, error – Atiku aide hits Tinubu

Reuben Abati, a veteran journalist and former Senior Adviser on Media and Publicity to former President Goodluck Jonathan, has said that Nigerians voted for the ’emilokan’ manifesto in the last 2023 presidential election. Abati, the lead anchor in the popular Arise TV breakfast talk show, Morning Show, made this known on Monday. The statement comes
Tinubu: Nigerians voted for ’emilokan’ manifesto, let them live with it – Abati replies Atiku

Reuben Abati, a veteran journalist and former Senior Adviser on Media and Publicity to former President Goodluck Jonathan, has said that Nigerians voted for the ’emilokan’ manifesto in the last 2023 presidential election.

Abati, the lead anchor in the popular Arise TV breakfast talk show, Morning Show, made this known on Monday.

The statement comes after former Vice President Atiku Abubakar stated that Nigerians were inundating him with inquiries on solutions to Nigeria’s current challenges.

Atiku said President Bola Tinubu’s government should be humble enough to borrow from his ideas to solve the country’s challenges in the interest of the Nigerian people.

However, speaking about the matter on TV, Abati said Nigerians rejected Atiku’s manifesto and went for Tinubu’s own in 2023.

According to him, Nigerians have made their choice and so should leave with the choice they made.

He further said that the political elite in the country got it wrong because they have removed the people quotient from the democratic equation.

Abati said: “The main story is the Waziri Adamawa, Atiku Abubakar saying that he would have done better, and the Presidency is saying that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Well, one of the challenges we face in this country is that we run on a presidential system of government. A presidential system in which in our own context, ‘the winner takes it all’. And the winner pretends to be a monarch and pretends, you know, to be the supreme authority; even if, the 1999 constitution is effective in that regard that it makes the president the supreme of authority.

“The thing about presidential democracy is also that, you know, once you win, you win. And what Nigerians are dealing with right now is the fact that we are not in a parliamentary system. We’re running a presidential system. And once you make your choice, you live with it.

“Now my first message to Atiku Abubakar is that the same manifesto that he is asking President Tinubu to return to was the same manifesto with which he engaged with Nigerians in 2023. And Nigerians voted for the “Emilokan” manifesto. So the thing about presidential democracy is that, okay you have voted for your.., you have you have made your choice, live with that choice. It may sound very extreme but that is the reality.

“However, Atiku has now intervened, acting like an opposition leader. And we keep calling for opposition politics. Is not part of the structure of our political choice. But he says this is my manifesto. And he says more or less that Tinubu administration is not doing well. He’s riding on the wave of populism because there are many Nigerians who shared that view that the people from Lagos and the “City Boy”, their leader, you know, it’s just not getting it right.

“And then he says in his own manifesto: This is what he would have done with fiscal reform. Too, he would have led by example. When he says he would have led by example. Is he saying he will not change aircraft or he will not travel in a long convoy? He was not specific in that regard.

“He said he will have very adopted a gradualist approach to the removal of subsidy. How? The devil is in the details. He said, for example, that he would have dealt with corruption with the opaqueness of NNPC and all of that.

“Look, some of these things that are opposition leaders say are better said than done. I think the big Issue is not Atiku Abubakar saying “I will have done better”. He will have to wait till 2027. The big issue is not the president saying “what iss he talking about Nigerians chose us”.

“I think the political elite in this country, they got it wrong. Because they have removed the people quotient in the democratic equation. Whether the system is parliamentary or presidential, the people are saying we are hungry. We are suffering.

“The responsibility, whether it’s Atiku Abubakar that has a better manifesto, or it is Bola Tinubu that has the better manifesto, it is for the people of Nigeria to say under this President we are doing well.

“The truth of the matter is that the people of Nigeria are saying that they are groaning, they are suffering under president Bola Tinubu. That is the basic content that we can hang on to.

“But for Atiku Abubakar saying, “I would have done better, okay, what do you expect him to say? But in 2023 the people whether they made a choice or they were rigged to make a choice, this is where we are at this moment.

“The question is, and that should be the responsibility of the opposition, is to come up with ideas about how this country can be moved forward. If we say the people from Lagos are too dumb, and to dependent on IMF and and World Bank, and they just do textbook governance. Okay, what ideas do we have that we can tell them, so that we can expose their stupidity in their expectations that the ‘Jagaban of Lagos’, also the ‘City Boy of Lagos’ will also realise that this enterprise is not about him alone and his voice. It’s about all of us, and we have a a duty to rescue this country, to salvage this country. That for me is the main subject.”

Tinubu: Nigerians voted for ’emilokan’ manifesto, let them live with it – Abati replies Atiku