The highlight of the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting on Thursday in Abuja was President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s approval of the National Construction and Household Support Programme (NCHSP).

This was detailed in a statement put out by the presidential spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale on his verified X handle.

It was gathered that the programme was aimed at boosting agricultural productivity, strengthening the economy, and providing immediate economic relief for Nigerian families.

Ngelale added that the programme, was supported by the NEC, includes financial allocations and infrastructure projects across all geo-political zones in the country.

He highlighted that a key component of the programme was the approval of the N50,000 uplift grant to be distributed to 100,000 families per state for three months.

He disclosed that another N155 billion was earmarked for the purchase and distribution of assorted foodstuff across the nation to address concerns about food security and affordability.

According to him, the programme will also cater to infrastructure projects, including the Sokoto-Badagry Highway, which will traverse seven states and is considered key for agricultural sustainability.

He noted that the states along this axis form the food belt of the nation.

Other infrastructure initiatives include the ongoing Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and the Trans-Saharan Highway. Tinubu also approved full counterpart financing for the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri Railway and the Ibadan-Abuja segment of the Lagos-Kano Standard-Gauge Railway.

In addition to the projects, Ngelale said the NEC approved the allocation of N10 billion to each state and the Federal Capital Territory for the procurement of buses and implementation of the Compressed natural gas uplift programme.

According to the presidential spokesman, provisions were also made for labour unions and civil society organizations.

During the NEC meeting, Tinubu urged state governors to collaborate in meeting the needs of citizens and boosting food production in the country.

He said, “Our states must work together to deliver on the critical reforms required of us to meet the needs of our people. Time is humanity’s most precious asset. You can never have enough of it. It is getting late.

“We are ready and able to support you in the form of the mechanization of your agricultural processes and the provision of high-quality seedlings.

“We are prepared to provide solar-powered irrigation facilities to support our farmers across seasons, but we must now produce. We must produce the food our people eat, and it will require coordination and intentionality between members of the National Economic Council (NEC).

“There is nothing we are doing that is more important than producing high-quality food for our people to consume, buy, and sell. We create jobs in the production of it. And that is before we generate wealth by exporting the excess. It is not beyond us to achieve this for Nigerians.

“How much support do you need from me, and in what form? I am prepared to provide it. But we must achieve the result. We must deliver on our targets at all levels. Please report back following your consultations and submit to my office within seven days.”

In a fiery presidential debate, marked by personal insults a stuttering Joe Biden on Thursday did little to douse concerns over his being too old for a second term in the White House in the race with Donald Trump.

According to AFP, a bombastic Trump lashed out at his successor, calling him a failure on the economy and the world stage.

The ferocious attach by Trump seemed to spur Biden, who attempted to hit back, but his delivery turned faltering as he spoke rapidly in a raspy, trailing-off voice, stumbled on his words and stared open-mouthed.

Political watchers term his performance on the day as triggering fresh concerns within his Democratic Party as polls show Trump is tied or ahead for the November election, even after the POTUS spent the week secluded in preparation.

In the historic first debate between a president and former president both accused each other of being history’s worst.

Recall that both Trump and Biden had gone into the history books as the oldest president when first elected, stooped to accuse each other of being childlike as they argued over their golf swings.

In another twist, Biden, 81, and Trump, 78, could not hide their personal animosity, as they did not shake hands as they walked to their podiums at the CNN headquarters in Atlanta.

This would have informed the organisers taking precaution by having no live audience and muting their microphones as the other spoke.

It was reported that Biden had a cold before the debate, but this did not prevent him from hitting Trump with what sounded as rehearsed lines with which Biden sought to remind millions of television viewers that Trump would be the first convicted felon in the White House.

Biden said, “You have the morals of an alley cat.”

However, an unruffled Trump, a veteran of rallies and reality television, spoke loudly as he ran through a long list of complaints about Biden’s record.

“I’m friends with a lot of people. They cannot believe what happened to the United States of America. We’re no longer respected,” Trump said.

In what appeared like Trump’s effort to seize on Biden’s delivery, he said, “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said either.”

‘Slow start’

Vice President Kamala Harris went into damage-control mode.

In a live interview on CNN, Harris said Biden’s record was “extraordinarily strong” but acknowledged concerns about his debate.

“Yes, there was a slow start, but it was a strong finish,” Harris said.

Kate Bedingfield, a former Biden communications director, said on CNN that “it was a really disappointing” evening for the president.

“I don’t think there is any other way to slice it,” she said.

A CNN poll found 67 percent of debate watchers thought Trump had won the event.

Democrats are set formally to name Biden as their candidate in August in Chicago, with little way to change course unless the president himself withdraws.

Biden has sought to counter attacks by Trump who say he is not vigorous enough for the job.

However, AFP cites Julian Zelizer, a historian at Princeton University, voicing that Biden’s supporters would be “extremely concerned.”

“Biden fueled the basic perception that has continued to overshadow him,” he said.

At a watch party in San Francisco, Hazel Reitz said she would still vote for Biden but added, “I can’t understand a word that he says. Isn’t it sad?”

Personal attacks

Neither candidate laid out new policies, with most of the exchanges consisting of attacks on the other’s record.

In one of the most personal moments, Biden cited accounts that Trump had described soldiers who died in the Normandy landing as “suckers” and noted his own son Beau, who served in Iraq and later died of cancer.

“My son was not a loser, was not a sucker. You’re the sucker. You’re the loser,” Biden said.

Trump denied the remarks and repeatedly accused Biden of not being coherent.

On foreign policy, Trump accused Biden — who faces a backlash from parts of his Democratic base over his support for Israel — of not helping Israel “finish the job” against Hamas.

“He doesn’t want to do it. He’s become like a Palestinian — but they don’t like him because he’s a very bad Palestinian, he’s a weak one,” Trump said.

Trump described Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan as the “most embarrassing moment in the history of our country” and said it encouraged Russia to invade Ukraine.

Biden, however, noted that he was the first recent president who has not had soldiers at risk overseas.

Trump and Biden also locked horns over abortion and immigration, key issues for their respective bases.

Biden, attacking Trump for appointing justices to the Supreme Court who ended Roe vs. Wade, the decision that allowed abortion rights around the country, said, “It’s been a terrible thing, what you’ve done.”

One candidate not on the stage was anti-establishment activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who failed to meet CNN’s threshold of reaching 15 percent in four national polls.

Kennedy instead spent the 90 minutes taking questions on a livestream, AFP reported.

The Organised Labour has decried the Federal Executive Council’s (FEC) delay tactics on the memorandum on the report of the Tripartite Committee on New National Minimum Wage.

It was gathered the FEC had on Tuesday stepped-down action on the memo.

In a swift reaction, the Head, Public Relations at the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Benson Upah, raised a strong voice against the failure of FEC to consider the memo at Tuesday’s meeting.

Upah insisted that the stepping down the tripartite committee report “creates room for injurious speculations.”

On his part, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, told media men after the FEC meeting that they stepped down the memorandum on the new minimum wage to allow for more consultations between President Bola Tinubu, state governors, local government authorities and the private sector.

According to Idris, the FEC deferred acting on the memo on the ground that the Federal Government is not the sole stakeholder on the national minimum wage issue.

Recall that the Federal Government, the Organised Private Sector (OPS) and Organised Labour had held several meetings on the new minimum wage with the NLC and Trade Union Congress (TUC) leaders insisting on N250,000.

The Federal Government, states and the OPS, had, however, made a counter-offer of N62,000.

The interesting twist in the matter appears to be the state governors, under the banner of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) having declared that any minimum wage higher than N60,000 was not sustainable.

While that was going on, some voices of reason including reputable economists threw a figure of N100,000 into the conversation.

However, the Assistant General Secretary of the NLC, Chris Onyeka, had made it clear that Labour would accept neither the Federal Government’s offer of N62,000 nor the N100,000 thrown up by independent voices.

Labour’s position was reinforced by the words of its President, Joe Ajaero, that the unionists were waiting on the President to consider Labour’s proposal.

It does appear that the Federal Government was aiming to politicize the issue of minimum wage by taking the campaign to even religious bodies.

The Minister for Information, had told the 2024 Synod of the Charismatic Bishops Conference of Nigeria in Abuja, that the government was focused on a realistic wage system with a view to safeguarding employment and guarding against mass retrenchment.

According to Idris, the N250,000 minimum wage proposal could undermine the economy, lead to mass retrenchment of workers and jeopardise the welfare of Nigerians.

The concerns in certain quarters note that in his Democracy Day broadcast, President Tinubu assured that he would forward a bill on the new minimum wage to the National Assembly soon.

He told governors and members of the National Assembly on the occasion of the nation’s 25th Democracy Day anniversary at the State House that his administration would pay whatever it could afford as the new minimum wage.

President Tinubu’s stand had drawn the ire of Labour, which insisted that the political office-holders should also be paid the minimum wage.

The Senate spokesman, Yemi Adaramodu, said, “The President will likely send the minimum wage bill after the Sallah break.”

Recall that the Senate had adjourned plenary for the Sallah break and is due to resume on July 2.

But the then acting President of the NLC, Prince Adewale Adeyanju, said Labour would not accept the N62,000 proposed by the government and OPS, advising the President to pay workers a living wage and ignore those he described as sycophants.

He also refuted insinuations that a consensus had been reached between the Federal Government and Labour on the new wage.

On Monday, the NLC President, Ajaero, mentioned that Organised Labour expected Tinubu to reach out to the members of the tripartite committee to harmonise the figure, given the stalemate at the end of the committee meeting.

Addressing State House correspondents after Tuesday’s FEC meeting, the information minister, Idris, explained that the President needed to interact with other wage-paying entities to factor their contributions and circumstances into the executive bill on minimum wage that would be passed on to the National Assembly for passage into law.

He stated, “I want to inform Nigerians here that the Federal Executive Council deliberated on that (minimum wage) and the decision is that because the new national minimum wage is not just that of the Federal Government, it is an issue that involves the Federal Government, the state governments, local governments, and the organised private sector and of course, including the organised labour.

“That memo was stepped down to enable Mr President to consult further, especially with the state governors and the organised private sector, before he makes a presentation to the National Assembly before an executive bill is presented to the National Assembly.

“So I want to state that on the new national minimum wage, Mr President is going to consult further so that he can have an informed position because the new national minimum wage, as I said, is not just an issue of the Federal Government.”

He said the President studied the report and will “consult wider before a final submission is made to the National Assembly.”

Reacting to the FEC’s decision, the NLC spokesman, Upah, declared that stepping down the minimum wage memo did not bode well for workers.

When asked if the decision to postpone the consideration of the minimum wage memo was a waste of time, he responded, “Definitely, stepping down the minimum wage memo does not bode well with or for us. It creates room for injurious speculations.”

The Deputy National President of the TUC, Tommy Etim, said he expected the President to address the ‘grey areas’ ahead of the transmission of the executive bill on the new minimum wage to the National Assembly.

“I want to believe that the government is very conscious of the grey areas which organised labour has pointed at, especially the amount to be accepted by every party involved, the frequency of review and criteria for the review and application.

“These, amongst others, are the burning issues which to the best of my knowledge need to be addressed before its consideration by FEC to the National Assembly,’’ he noted.