• 2023: Reject my husband if he fails to perform as president – Tinubu’s wife to Nigerians
• Senate asks CBN Gov, Finance Minister for details of N22.7trn loan
• LP not a national party — it is built on ethnicity, religion – Kwankwaso
• Court dismisses suit seeking Tinubu’s disqualification over Muslim-Muslim ticket
• FEC okays NNPC Ltd to invest N1.9trn in 44 federal roads

Across Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, these are the five top Nigerian news stories you shouldn’t miss:

2023: Reject my husband if he fails to perform as president – Tinubu’s wife to Nigerians

Bola Tinubu’s wife Oluremi has encouraged Nigerians to “throw away” her husband if he doesn’t perform after being elected president on behalf of the All Progressives Congress, APC.

In Owerri, Imo State, she delivered the keynote address at the South-East Women’s Rally for the Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign.

According to the former governor of Lagos State, the focus of the election in February should be performance in the presence of God, not religion.

She asked Nigerians to vote for Christian-Christian after giving the APC Muslim-Muslim a chance.

“Let’s leave religion aside; I am a Christian. Have you ever thought that one day a Christian-Christian candidate would emerge? What would be the reference point?

“We have tried the Muslim-Christian ticket; let us try this one too, and after four years, if they don’t do well, you can drive them out,” she said.

Senate asks CBN Gov, Finance Minister for details of N22.7trn loan

he Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Godwin Emefiele, and the Minister of Finance, Budget, and Planning, Zainab Ahmed, have been given a three-day deadline by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, to respond to questions about the N23.7 trillion Ways and Means debt restructuring request made by President Muhammadu Buhari last year.

The President and the governor of the CBN have been accused of constitutional violations by the Senate.

On Tuesday, Lawan requested information about the N22.7 trillion Ways and Means restructuring request from the executive branch of the government.

The senate president ordered Ahmed and Emefiele to supply the required information within three days.

He said, “We must have the required information to pass the N22.7tn loan request, and time is not on our side in the Senate now, given the coming general elections.”

LP not a national party — it is built on ethnicity, religion – Kwankwaso

Rabiu Kwankwaso, the presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), says the Labour Party (LP) is built on ethnicity and religion.

Kwankwaso said this on Wednesday at Chatham House in the United Kingdom.

The former governor of Kano also said unlike his party, LP does not have the national spread critical to winning the 2023 presidential election.

“If you have a party which is based on ethnicity and religion — that is the difference between Labour Party and our party, which is a national party, New Nigeria Peoples Party — while we are accusing leaders of being one thing or the other negative, I think the followers also must learn how to be Nigerians, and not [as someone] coming from one part of the country,” he said.

“I was one of those who initially wanted to act together with the Labour Party. Unfortunately, at that time, Labour Party was under very serious media hype and therefore they could not see reason

Kwankwaso’s comment comes weeks after NNPP and LP were said to be considering a coalition for the 2023 presidential election.

At the time, one talking point that dominated speculations on the possible merger was the choice of who would be the presidential candidate between Kwankwaso and Obi.

However, the possibility of an alliance between the two parties soon collapsed after Kwankwaso maintained that he would not stop contesting.

Court dismisses suit seeking Tinubu’s disqualification over Muslim-Muslim ticket

A Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed a suit seeking the disqualification of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, over the issue of the Muslim-Muslim ticket ahead of the February 25, 2022, polls.

Justice Ahmed Ramat Mohammed yesterday ruled that the lawyer who filed the suit lacked the locus standi since he was neither a member of the APC nor a participant in the process that produced Tinubu and his running mate, Kashim Shettima, as candidates.

The suit was filed by an Abuja-based lawyer, Osigwe Ahmed Momoh, seeking an order nullifying the candidature of Tinubu and the APC from participating in the presidential election on the ground that the nomination of the Muslim-Muslim candidacy was unconstitutional and against the spirit and letters of Sections 14, 15 and 224 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution.

Momoh argued that the Muslim-Muslim candidacy ran counter to the spirit of national cohesion, integration and unity.

He asked the court for an order of perpetual injunction restraining the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from publishing the name of APC and its presidential candidate for the 2023 elections.

FEC okays NNPC Ltd to invest N1.9trn in 44 federal roads

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has given its nod to the recommendation for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPC LTD.) to invest ₦1.9 trillion in the reconstruction of 44 federal roads under the tax credit policy.

The council gave the approval at its meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Wednesday, January 18, 2023 at the State House, Abuja.

Osinbajo’s spokesperson, Laolu Akande, disclosed this on behalf of the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola.

The FEC approved the recommendation to invest in the reconstruction of selected federal roads under the Federal Government Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Policy phase II by the NNPC limited and its subsidiaries.

“So, the council approved the proposal by the Ministry of Works and Housing for the reconstruction of 44 proposed federal roads with a total length of 4,554 kilometres in the total sum of N1.9 trillion,” he said.

Akande said the council also approved the concession of nine federal roads.

He said the roads were spread across the country.

In another memo, the Minister of Works and Housing also got approval of council for concessionaires for nine road corridors under the pilot phase of the value-added section of the Highways Development and Management Initiative, following the issuance of the requisite full business case compliance certificate by the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission for a period of 25 years for each road corridor as follows.

The roads that will be under this first phase are the Benin-Asaba corridor, Abuja-Lokoja-Onitsha-Owerri-Aba, Shagamu-Benin, Abuja-Keffi-Akwanga-Makurdi, Kano-Maiduguri, Enugu-Port Harcourt, Lagos-Ota-Abeokuta and Lagos-Badagry-Seme.

He also said that Fashola got council’s approval for augmentation of contract for rehabilitation of the Oshogbo-Ilesha road phase 1 in Osun State in the sum of N1.2 billion.

“The approval thereby revises the subsisting contract sum from N3 billion to N4 billion representing an increase of 33 per cent of the original sum,” he said.

YNaija