These are the top five stories you should be monitoring today.

The tenure extension for the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), John Odigie-Oyegun, has been reversed.

At a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Villa, some of the governors, including Plateau’s Simon Lalong, who was appointed by Oyegun to head the technical committee on the matter, were making a case for tenure extension, but the President reportedly insisted that there would be no room for illegality.

The governors met on Tuesday night and agreed to back the President’s position, leading to the collapse of the Lalong technical panel. It had to hurriedly wind up with a report in favour of an elective convention in June.

---

President Buhari has approved the disbursement of $1 billion to fight insecurity.

The National Economic Council (NEC) approved the spending last December.

Briefing State House correspondents at the end of a security meeting with President Buhari, the Minister of Defence Mansur Dan-Ali said, “What I can add, after all that I have said is to inform you that of recent, our leader, President Muhammadu Buhari, gave approval for the purchase of more equipment for the military, worth $1 billion.”

---

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Wednesday, urged the federal government to check its distribution of oil revenue to states.

The committee said the government should develop a savings culture to provide the needed stability for the economy against future oil price-related shocks.

The committee said the bulk of oil money shared to states was growing compared to last year.

The observations were contained in the 117th communique of the re-constituted MPC and read by the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele.

---

The federal government has announced plans to profile Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in order to ensure compliance with regulations against money laundering and terrorist financing.

The Director, Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), Francis Usani, said this at a regional workshop on money laundering organised by the Inter-Governmental Action Group Against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), on Wednesday, in Abuja.

Usani who is also the National Correspondent of GIABA said that the profiling would address some “deficient NGOs” in the country.

---

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Wednesday, advocated compulsory health insurance scheme for citizens to enable all to access quality and affordable health care services.

Osinbajo noted that the current National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) although useful, was unable to pull resources together to cater for the health needs of others not yet enrolled.

He said government was investing in education and healthcare and had supported states with N1.91 trillion.

He, however, added that while such sector funding lay in the states, only a functional and all-embracing NHIS could provide adequate health care for citizens.

---

And… stories from around the world.

Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will be imprisoned while he appeals his corruption conviction, the country’s Supreme Court has ruled.

He is facing 12 years in jail on charges of accepting a bribe but had asked to remain free during his appeal.

Lula claims the charges are politically motivated, and designed to prevent him from running in October’s presidential election.

---

More than 50 Ghanaians who tried to gain entry to Australia under the guise of covering the Commonwealth Games as journalists were apprehended when they were unable to answer sport-related questions.

The deportees, although in possession of genuine traveling documents, were arrested and detained after they failed to answer the sports-related questions which they should ordinarily be familiar with.

The country’s Deputy Sports Minister, Pious Enam Hadidze, says an investigation has been opened into the development.

However, he denied the ministry had anything to do with helping them get the visas in the first place.

---

The Philippines has announced its best-known holiday island Boracay will be closed to tourists for six months over concerns that the resort has become a “cesspool” tainted by dumped sewage.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the shutdown to start on April 26, his spokesman Harry Roque said on Twitter, without providing further detail.

---

US President Donald Trump has signed a proclamation to send the National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border, the White House said.

The Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen had announced the expected move earlier Wednesday.

Nielsen had urged Congress to “close loopholes that exacerbate” problems at the border and should allocate additional funding for detention centres and a wall.