Agency Reporter

President Trump’s campaign announced on Wednesday that it will request a recount of the results in Wisconsin, where former Vice President Joe Biden is leading the president by more than 20,000 votes. The Associate Press has yet to call the race in the Badger State for Biden.

“Despite ridiculous public polling used as a voter suppression tactic, Wisconsin has been a razor thin race as we always knew that it would be,” Bill Stepien, Trump’s campaign manager, said in a statement. “There have been reports of irregularities in several Wisconsin counties which raise serious doubts about the validity of the results. The President is well within the threshold to request a recount and we will immediately do so.”

In Wisconsin, if a race is within 1 percentage point, the trailing candidate can force a recount. The race between Biden falls within that range.

Trump again sought to cast suspicion on the vote count on Wednesday morning, baselessly claiming on Twitter that his lead “started to magically disappear as surprise ballot dumps were counted.”

Read Also: Biden: we are winning

In reality, however, there were delays in counting the record number of mail-in ballots in several key swing states because rules enacted by Republican-controlled legislatures prevented them from being counted before Election Days.

His tweet was promptly labeled “disputed” and potentially “misleading,” part of Twitter’s efforts to combat misinformation about the election.

Former Vice President Joe Biden has now received more votes for president than any other candidate in U.S. election history, officially surpassing former President Barack Obama’s 2008 popular vote numbers around 8 a.m. ET on Wednesday.

The 2020 election was shaping up to have the highest voter turnout since 1908, when 65 percent of eligible Americans voted, The New York Times reports. The country was on track for around 160 million votes this year, which would put the eligible turnout rate at around 67 percent.

Agency Reporter

Mr Oye Owolewa cruised into victory on Tuesday night to become the first Nigerian-American to be elected to the U.S. Congress.

The 30-year-old is heading to the U.S. Senate to represent the District of Columbia (DC) as a shadow congressman under the Democratic Party.

Owolewa garnered a whopping 164,026 votes, representing 82.84 per cent of the total votes cast.

Voters in DC elect two shadow senators, who are not officially sworn or seated by the U.S. Senate.

These non-voting delegates can vote in committees, speak on the floor of the chamber, and sponsor legislation, but cannot vote at plenary.

“Looks like WE DID IT!!! I want to thank everyone, from family and close friends to DC residents,” Omolewa said on Instagram.

Read Also: Chances of nine Nigerians contesting in U.S. elections, by experts

“Because of your contributions and sacrifices, I stand before you as America’s first Nigerian-American congressman.

“In this role, I’m going to fight for DC statehood and bring our values to the lawmaking process.

“While today is a  day for some celebration, the hard work also follows. Again, thanks so much for everything. I wouldn’t be here without you all,” he said.

Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq and Chairman/CEO, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa  hailed Democrat candidate, Oye Owolewa, for making victory as a shadow United States (U.S.) Representative for Washington DC.

The governor described the emergence of Mr. Owolewa, who hails from Omu-Aran, as a pride to homeland Kwara and Nigeria.

Mrs. Dabiri-Erewa, in a congratulatory letter to Owolewa, described the victory as a well-deserved.

Agency Reporter

The major stock indexes in the United States opened higher yesterday and kept on ralllying after a long election night produced no clear winner in an historic presidential race.

With votes still being counted in six key battleground states, the Dow Jones Industrial Average vaulted more than 250 points at the open of trading on Wall Street and kept building on those gains.

Around noon in New York, the thirty-share index was up more than 720 points or 2.62 percent at 28,200.13

The S&P 500 – a gauge for the health of US retirement and college savings reports – was up 3.16 percent while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index surged 4.23 percent as investors piled into tech shares – which have been outsized winners this year.

Wall Street’s main stock indexes finished higher on Tuesday on hopes that a clear winner would emerge from the US presidential race.

Polls showed President Donald Trump’s Democratic challenger Joe Biden had a substantial lead going into Tuesday’s vote, but as the night wore on it became evident that the race had significantly tightened in key swing states.

The race now hinges on vote counts in Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Nevada.

The spectre of a contested election intensified after President Trump tweeted: “We are up BIG, they are trying to STEAL the Election. We will never let them do it. Votes cannot be cast after the polls are closed!”

“The results are not yet clear, but so far President Trump has outperformed polls in most states,” Alec Phillips, a Goldman Sachs analyst said in a Wednesday morning note.

A Democratic majority in the Senate looks less likely as well, he added.

“For fiscal policy, Senate control is at least as important as the White House. Under a narrow Republican Senate majority, we would expect no major tax increases but also a fiscal stimulus package of less than $1 trillion,” Phillips said.

Robard Williams, senior vice president at Moody’s Investor Services, expressed confidence even a contested vote count would not inflict long-term damage on U.S. credit markets.

“While the lack of an immediate conclusion to the election process may increase financial market volatility, our assumption is that U.S. institutions will eventually resolve the delays in vote counting and any subsequent disputes over the results in a manner that is consistent with the established frameworks around the rule of law without causing any meaningful, enduring credit impact,” he wrote.

A blow to gig economy workers turned into a big win for Uber and Lyft after Californians overwhelmingly voted in favour of a ballot measure exempting app-based ride-hailing and delivery services from classifying drivers as employees eligible for benefits and job protections.

The win enables Uber and Lyft to preserve their business model that relies on keeping drivers classified as independent contractors.

Shares of Uber were up 14.59 percent around noon in New York, while shares of Lyft were up 12.37 percent.

Agency Reporter

Minister of Foreign Affairs Godfrey Onyeama has said plans are underway to reduce the number of International Organisations Nigeria belongs to because of paucity of funds.

Onyeama stated this while defending the ministry’s 2021 budget at the House of Representatives yesterday in Abuja.

He said the ministry is faced with a challenge of meeting its contribution to those International organisations.

“We are owing a lot, and in the Federal Executive Council (FEC), there is a process to rationalise and cut down on the International Organisations we belong to.

“This is because we are just owing monies left and right and it is not even good for the image of the country,” he said.

Onyeama, who decried the poor funding of the ministry, reeled out the challenges facing the 2021 budget implementation.

The minister said one the challenges the ministry is facing is the movement of officers, ambassadors and their families.

He said N1.6 billion is required for the movement of ambassadors while officers will require N3.7 billion, making a total of N5.3 billion for the whole movement.

Read Also: FG withdraws Presidential Task Force from Apapa roads

The minister said in addition to what was received in the revised budget, the ministry will require an additional N1.1 billion in 2021 to meet the cost of movement.

He stressed the need to address the inadequate overhead budgetary provisions to the missions, which is resulting to a lot of debt for electricity and rent.

“Just on Monday, the ambassador in Hungary called to say they are going to throw them out from the chancery building; that the landlord is coming and that they do not have the money to pay.

“And we get that from a lot of missions across the world and that is not a sustainable way of running foreign service.

“Then this exchange rate differential with the CBN is really something we need to address once and for all.

“It is not so easy, all of these things are computed in naira and all the payments abroad are in dollars and once the exchange rate is changed, it never goes the other way, it always goes up, it never comes down visa vis the dollar. This means immediate shortfall for all our missions,” he said

The minister said the ministry requires an additional capital allocation of N5 billion to address some of the missions’ renovation needs.

According to him, “a lot of our missions are eyesores and it is just a huge embarrassment to the country that we can have mission in such terrible conditions.”

Onyeama said that between 2012 and 2014, the ministry owed local contractors N1.3 billion.

According to him, “we have been receiving letters from the National Assembly forwarding to us various claims and judgement and asking us to pay them.

“We have a big challenge with clothing allowances, as you know, all officers in our missions from grade level 7 and above are entitled to US$2,500 clothing allowance per annum.

“In the 2021 budget, about 1,312 officers will be expecting the payment of these allowances and if you take at the CBN official rate, we are looking at N1.2 billion.

“What we have available is N762 million for that, to able to pay the clothing allowances, we still need at additional sum of N500 million,” he said.

Onyeama said the ministry needs N225 million to pay premium for the insurance of the ministry’s headquarters.

According to him, that is based on an estimate of the value of the building at N12 billion which is a very rare conservative estimate of that building.

He said the ministry needs N342 million for the building of infrastructure which bridge the ICT gap the ministry currently faces.

“I was talking about the ICT deficit, with presence in 110 countries, we believe that the ministry should be in a key position for foreign direct investment and export promotion, leveraging on our physical presence in 110 countries of the world to make that possible.

“It would be a one-stop shop for Nigerian businesses without going through all kinds of bottle necks. We want your consideration to allocate this amount into the envelope.

“Part of what will go for digitizing our missions and the 24-7 health desk that we need to have to keep in touch with Nigerians around the world.

“That will really transform the ministry and get us to do things we need to be doing and add economic values to the country,” he said.

Agency Reporter

U.S. President Donald Trump has filed a suit at the Michigan Court of Claims to halt vote counting there, his campaign organisation said.

Trump’s campaign manager, Mr Bill Stepien, alleged that the president’s team had not been provided with “meaningful access to numerous” collation centres in the state.

“As votes in Michigan continue to be counted, the presidential race in the state remains extremely tight as we always knew it would be.

“President Trump’s campaign has not been provided with meaningful access to numerous counting locations to observe the opening of ballots and the counting process, as guaranteed by Michigan law.

Read Also: Trump declares win, vows court action

“We have filed a suit in the Michigan Court of Claims to halt counting until meaningful access has been granted,” Stepien said.

He said the campaign had also demanded a review of the ballots opened and counted in its absence.

“President Trump is committed to ensuring that all legal votes are counted in Michigan and everywhere else,” he said.

Trump’s challenger and former Vice President, Joe Biden, has said his side is ready for a legal battle, as vote counting continues in key swing states.

Trump and Biden are both asking their supporters for money to finance their legal battles over the election results.

“To make sure every vote is counted, we’re setting up the largest election protection effort ever assembled, because Donald Trump doesn’t get to decide the outcome of this election — the American people do.

“Chip in to power the new Biden Fight Fund,” Biden said.

(NAN)