Good evening.

Here are the top 5 stories that drove conversation today:

President Muhammadu Buhari wrote the Senate to seek approval for an external loan of $5.5 billion.

In a letter read by the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, the President explained that the fund will be channelled towards funding capital projects in the 2017 budget and refinancing maturing domestic debts.

See the content of the letter here.

President Buhari also met behind closed doors with service chiefs, Minister of Defence, retired Brigadier General Mansur Dan-Ali and the National Security Adviser, Retired Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno, at the Aso Villa today.

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The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu and the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Maikanti Baru, set aside their back and forth accusations and sat to discuss the way forward for the Nigerian Petroleum industry at the Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja.

This development is a rather strange turn-around, considering that the two were at logger-heads with accusations and rebuttals just yesterday. Here’s what they both said at the meeting.

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Tourism will soon be introduced as a subject in secondary schools, says Patricia Narai,  Deputy Director, Domestic Tourism in the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture.

“The Nigerian Educational Development Council has proposed 34 trades and identified tourism as one of the trades to be thought at the entrepreneurship level,” she said.

“So students from SS I to SS III will soon start studying tourism and at that level, they can come out victorious and establish a tourism business of their own.”

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Meanwhile, in Kaduna, a shocking 21,780 out of 33,000 teachers reportedly failed the primary four test administered to test their competence by the Kaduna State government.

In reaction, the state government is looking for 25,000 new teachers as one of the plans to restore dignity and quality to education. Governor Nasir el-Rufai unveiled the planned recruitment when he received a World Bank’s delegation in Kaduna on Monday.

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On the international scene, North Korean hackers have reportedly stolen a large amount of classified military documents, which includes a South Korean and U.S. plan to “decapitate” North Korea’s leadership.

According to sources, 235 gigabytes worth of military documents were taken, but nearly 80 percent of the contents of the documents are yet to be identified.