1. Soldiers on Saturday stormed Banex Market in Abuja over the assault on some of their colleagues. A mob had descended on at least two soldiers in the markets where electronic gadgets and mobile phones are mostly sold. Some traders closed for the day and fled home to apparently avoid being caught up in a reprisal attack.

2. Africa’s richest man and chairman of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, says with the plan by the Dangote Refinery, Nigeria will not need to import gasoline by June, this year. Speaking at the Africa CEO Forum Annual Summit in Kigali on Friday, he said the refinery had started supplying diesel and aviation fuel in Nigeria.

3. The Oba of Benin, Omo N’Oba N’Edo, Uku Akpolokpolo, Ewuare II, has received two looted royal stools carted away during the invasion of Benin City in 1897, from the German government. The artefacts — bronze and wooden royal stools (Ekete), were looted during the reign of Oba Eresoyen and Oba Esigie several centuries ago.

4. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has appointed former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Alhaji Yayale Ahmed, former Bauchi Governor, Alhaji Isa Yuguda, and former INEC Chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega, and others to serve in the newly released list of federal universities’ governing councils.

5. Rivers Governor, Siminalayi Fubara has lamented that his administration only settled down to work three months ago due to the crisis rocking the State. Fubara said despite the delay, his government had achieved better project and service delivery than the eight years of government of some other administrations.

6. Tragedy struck in Ode-Omu town in Ayedaade local government area of Osun State on Saturday after a private car crushed a mother and two children returning from vigil to death. It was gathered that they were crushed to death while on a motorcycle. The rider simply identified as Abraham also died.

7. The presidency has dismissed the planned alliance between former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi. According to the presidency, President Bola Tinubu is not bothered about the planned alliance, noting that the President was not losing sleep.

8. A yet-to-be-identified middle-aged man has died while watching football at a local bar along the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway. It was gathered that the incident happened on Thursday, May 16. The deceased, who was a regular customer in the open bar, was said to have walked in, sat down, and started to watch a football match until he fell asleep.

9. The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps Commandant General’s Special Intelligence Squad has dismantled an illegal refining site containing over 100,000 litres of stolen crude oil in Adobe settlement, Etche Local Government Area, Rivers State. The Commander of the CG’s SIS, Dandaura Apollos, said the success resulted from credible intelligence indicating that suspects had vandalised a multinational company’s wellhead.

10. The Adamawa State Police Command has arrested a 23-year-old stepmother, Rachel Geoffrey, for allegedly inflicting severe burns on her 7-year-old and 3-year-old stepchildren. According to the police, the stepmother intentionally set fire to the children’s hands as punishment for eating food she had saved for their father.

The Federal Government (FG) has approved the re-constitution of governing councils at public tertiary institutions.

Folasade Boriowo, media head at the federal ministry of education, confirmed this on Saturday.

In June 2023, the National Universities Commission (NUC) dissolved the councils of all federal varsities on a presidential directive.

The federal directive also affected the governing boards of government-funded parastatals, agencies, and institutions in education.

It stalled administrative decision-making in public tertiary institutions by mandating these universities, colleges of education, and federal polytechnics to seek ministerial approval for functions previously overseen by the governing board or councils.

The re-constitution of governing councils now comes after 11 months of repeated calls from education stakeholders.

Among them is the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) which argued that the non-reinstatement or reconstitution of governing councils in universities was causing an uptick in cases of “illegality and flagrant violation” of institutional autonomy in public universities.

Chris Maiyaki, the NUC’s executive secretary, said a committee was set up to ensure the most qualified people are put in the councils.

“As soon as they are constituted, they will be made to undergo orientation courses immediately, to ensure they are in tune with the expectations of the knowledge of government structures and laws of institutions,” the NUC head had stated.

“It will also help them to understand those cross-cutting issues that we need to nip in the bud, to ensure our institutions regain their glorious paths.”

The Tripartite Committee on Minimum Wage will reconvene on Tuesday, May 23 to further negotiate a reasonable new minimum wage for workers, after the organised labour walked out of the negotiation on May 15.

An invitation letter sent to the labour leaders by the chairman of the committee, Bukar Goni, states that the other members of the committee have agreed to shift grounds from the N48,000 proposal which was made on Wednesday.

The letter appealed to the labour leaders to speak to their members and attend the reconvened meeting next Tuesday.

The organised labour comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) have proposed a new minimum wage of N615,000, which is way higher than the N48,000 proposal by the government.

The organised private sector, on the other hand, proposed an initial offer of N54,000. After dumping the talks, the labour leaders addressed a press conference where they expressed their anger over the Federal Government’s offer.

They blamed the government and the private sector for the breakdown in negotiation.

May 31 Deadline
The Federal Government had failed to present a nationally acceptable minimum wage to Nigerians before the May 1 Labour Day.

The situation has forced labour to be at loggerheads with the government. In the wake of the tussle, the NLC President Joe Ajaero insisted on the N615,000 minimum wage, arguing that the amount was arrived at after an analysis of the economic situation worsened by the hike in the cost of living and the needs of an average Nigerian family of six.

Ajaero and labour leaders have given the Federal Government a May 31 deadline to meet their demands.

On January 30, Vice President Kashim Shettima inaugurated the 37-member tripartite committee to come up with a new minimum wage.

With its membership cutting across federal, and state governments, the private sector, and organised labour, the panel is to recommend a new national minimum wage for the country.

During the committee’s inauguration, the Vice President urged the members to “speedily” arrive at a resolution and submit their reports early.

“This timely submission is crucial to ensure the emergence of a new minimum wage,” Shettima said.

The 37-man committee is chaired by the former Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Goni Aji.

With the cost of living rising following the removal of fuel subsidy, calls for a new minimum wage have continued to make headlines in Nigeria.