News Headlines for the 16th of April 2021.

Buhari returns after 15-day UK medical sojourn

• The President, Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday returned to Nigeria from London.
• Recall that Buhari travelled to London, United Kingdom on March 30 for routine medical check-up.
• Adesina had announced that the President would return to the country in the second week of April.
• The presidential jet that conveyed Buhari and some of his close aides landed at the Presidential Wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja around 4.45pm.
• The Chief of Staff to the President, Prof Ibrahim Gambari, led other top government officials to receive him at the airport.
• While in London, some Nigerians protested in front of the Abuja House, asking the President to return to Nigeria and fix the various problems facing the country.
• The protest was spearheaded Reno Omokri, a former aide of former President Goodluck Jonathan 

Govs, state speakers meet Gambari, seek end to JUSUN strike

• Representatives of the Nigeria Governors Forum, Conference of Speakers of State Legislatures in Nigeria and some other top government officials on Thursday met with the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
• The meeting held behind closed doors centered on financial autonomy for state judiciary and legislature.
• Recall that members of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria are currently on strike over the non-implementation of financial autonomy for the judiciary.
• The Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, who is also the vice chairman of the NGF spoke with State House correspondents at the end of the meeting.
• The governor appealed to the judiciary workers to call off the ongoing strike adding that all state governors were committed to building institutions, particularly the parliaments and the judiciary in their respective states.
• Tambuwal said the governors had always been in support of financial autonomy.

FG demands NIN, approves new SIM activation registration

• The Federal Government on Thursday said it had approved the activation of Subscriber Identification Module registration but this must be done with a valid National Identification Number.
• It said the new SIM activation registration approval with mandatory NIN was in line with the Revised National Digital Identity Policy for SIM Card Registration.
• It said the implementation of the policy would commence on April 19, 2021, and the issuance of new SIMs and other suspended activities would resume on the same date, as long as verification was done and the guidelines were fully adhered to.
• The Technical Assistant, Information Technology, to the communications minister, Femi Adeluyi, disclosed this in a statement issued in Abuja.
• The statement said in line with this, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, coordinated and led the development of a Revised National Digital Identity Policy for SIM Card Registration in collaboration with stakeholders.

 CBN faults Obaseki, governor maintains stand over Printed N60bn

• The Edo State Governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki, has urged the Federal Government to take urgent steps to end the current monetary rascality, so as to prevent the prevailing economic challenge from degenerating further.
• Obaseki, who has come under fire for saying that the Federal Government printed N60bn to share as part of federal allocation in March, in a statement he signed on Thursday, said it was time to stop playing the ostrich and approach the Nigerian project with all sense of responsibility and commitment.
• Obaseki said this as the Central Bank of Nigeria faulted the Edo State governor’s claim that it printed N60bn in March for the Federal Government.
• The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, had faulted Obaseki on Wednesday.
• In an interview with State House correspondents, the minister described Obaseki’s claim as untrue.
•  But the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, on Thursday dismissed the claims that the apex bank printed    N60bn to augment the March 2021 disbursements of the Federation Account Allocation Committee.
• Speaking in Nasarawa State during an inspection tour of the proposed $500m Dangote sugar processing facility, Emefiele said, “If you understand the concept of printing of money, it is about lending money. That is our job. To print is about lending money.