• NDLEA proposes compulsory drug tests for tertiary institution admissions
• Tinubu requests that NNPCL use its federation dividend payment for fuel subsidy
• Fuel scarcity bites Nigerians as Lagos and Abuja queue at fuel stations
• Prices of farmed products drastically reduce in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe
• NUP reveals some pensioners are given ₦500 as a monthly pension

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

NDLEA proposes compulsory drug tests for tertiary institution admissions

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has proposed that universities and other tertiary institutions adopt the habit of mandating their admission seekers to undergo a drug test as part of the admission exercises.

The proposal was suggested by the Commandant of the NDLEA, Kwara State, Hajia Fatima Abiola-Popoola, as she believed that the introduction of drug tests would deter Nigerian students from falling victim to drug use at an early age.

She stated that including it in the admission requirements would “Serve as a preventive measure while offering early intervention and counselling for those already using drugs to prevent them from becoming problematic users”.

Tinubu requests that NNPCL use its federation dividend payment for fuel subsidy

The President of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu, made a shocking 360° move as he requested that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) hold off on its federation dividend payment for 2023 and instead use it for fuel subsidy.

The request has since been accepted by the NNPCL as the agency has paused its interim dividends from May to December 2024 before it continues to uphold the fuel subsidy removal law even though it is speculated that the fuel subsidy will take about ₦5 trillion from NNCPL this year.

In June 2023, upon the fuel subsidy removal, the NNPCL used a “derived FX rate” as its template to keep the petrol price under ₦600/₦700 per litre, although the gap between this rate and the official FX rate was different.

Fuel scarcity bites Nigerians as Lagos and Abuja queue at fuel stations

Fuel scarcity continues in various states across Nigeria, including Abuja and Lagos.

The quest for petrol in the country has led so many Nigerians to settle for whatever they come across, such things as inflated fuel prices per litre and suffering hours of queues to purchase petrol.

There has been a decline in vehicular movements lately due to the scarcity of petrol and the prices required to purchase either from black market retailers or from fuel stations as some charge as high as ₦1000/litre and ₦12,000 for 10 litres.

Prices of farmed products drastically reduce in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe

The prices of farmed products like tomatoes and pepper have drastically reduced in Northern Nigeria as a large basket of tomatoes once sold at ₦150,000 in April and May now cost ₦40,000, a small basket once sold at ₦75,000 now costs ₦18,000.

Going further, pepper, which was sold at ₦170,000, is now sold at ₦82,000, and the price of a bag of okra has been halved as it is now sold at ₦25,000 from ₦50,000.

Unfortunately, in the same light, other farmed products have increased in market value as onions, once sold at ₦30,000, are now sold at ₦50,000, and a tuber of yam, once sold at ₦1,500, now goes for ₦4,000.

NUP reveals some pensioners are given ₦500 as a monthly pension

The Nigerian Union of Pensioners (NUP) has revealed that some pensioners under the union receive meagre pensions as low as ₦500/month.

The Secretary of the union, Kaduna State, Alhassan Musa, made this announcement in a recent interview, calling it disgraceful and pathetic, adding that some of these retirees laid down their lives in service to the country and had been forgotten by the nation.

He likened the pension collected by those in Southern oil-producing states and Northern states, saying those in the latter received more than the former.

“The worst affected are pensioners in most of the Southern and oil-producing states in spite of getting fat allocations from the federation account,” he stated.

“The condition of pensioners in some Northern states and the FCT are far better as some of them received between ₦3,500 and ₦18,000 monthly pension”.