These are the stories you should be monitoring today:

National leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has dismissed calls for the resignation of the party’s national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, saying party supremacy must be respected.

Speaking to State House correspondents after a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday, Tinubu who explained that Oshiomhole has neither violated the APC constitution or engaged in any anti-party activity to warrant his resignation or removal from office, urged the aggrieved parties to accept defeat and move on.

“Party is supreme, party must be respected, abuses will not do it and anger will not do it. It is party politics, somebody will win and somebody will lose, too bad,’’ he said.

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Similarly, the former Lagos governor has dismissed the chances of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar’s to win the February 16 presidential election, as he said Nigerians “will not go back to the illusion of the PDP.”

Reacting to the meeting between Atiku and his party chiefs in the United Arab Emirates, Tinubu said no attempt to dress up the former ruling party would materialise, adding that “the leopard cannot change its skin”.

“We don’t fear, whether it is in the jungle or in Dubai or in Abu Dhabi; people are free to meet and strategise in anyway they want but we are not going back to the illusion of the PDP. It is not possible; Nigerians will not do that,” he said.

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The Federal Government on Wednesday rejected the N22,500 minimum wage proposal by the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), adding that all parties on the ground would resume back on negotiations to see that the welfare of the workers is met.

Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, who stated this on Wednesday during a phone interview on Channels Television said he had told the governors that they have not even done enough, insisting that their proposal is even below the N24,000 agreement by the Federal Government.

Meanwhile, the government has filed an ex-parte motion at the National Industrial Court (NIC) in Abuja, to prevent labour from embarking on its November 6 industrial action, Guardian reports.

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There seems to be no end in sight over the crisis rocking the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), as the Executive Secretary of the scheme, Prof. Usman Yusuf, has filed a suit before a Federal High Court in Abuja against the Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami (SAN) challenging his suspension.

According to the suit filed by his counsel, Uchechukwu Obi (SAN), embattled Yusuf is contending that “only the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and no other, upon the recommendation of the minister of health can discipline, investigate, suspend or remove him from office.”

He has further asked the court to set aside his purported suspension from the NHIS by the board of the agency as null and void, Daily Trust reports.

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Apex Igbo Socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Igbo World Assembly (IWA),  and other Igbo socio-cultural organisations have joined their voices to the call for a robust presidential debate to enable Nigerians make an informed choice on who to vote for in the February 16 presidential election.

The groups who made the call during the business conference of Ohanaeze Ndigbo in the Diaspora in Enugu on Wednesday, with the President General of Ohanaeze, Chief Nnia Nwodo, urging the people of the South East to take advantage of the 2019 general elections to support a government that would change the narrative in the country.

“Four zones out of the six in the country have set the agenda for restructuring. I appeal to our people to go out and vote during the election because your warfare is your vote,” he pleaded.

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And stories from around the world:

Indonesian divers have retrieved a black box from a Lion Air jet that crashed into the sea this week with 189 aboard and brought it back to a ship on the surface, one of the divers told media on Thursday. (Reuters)

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A no-fly zone and a ban on military drills near the heavily fortified border between North and South Korea came into effect on Thursday as the once uneasy neighbours push to further defuse tensions. (Al Jazeera)

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U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday the United States could send as many as 15,000 troops to the border with Mexico, as he hardens his stance against a caravan of migrants fleeing violence and poverty in Central America. (Reuters)

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US President Donald Trump has launched a fresh assault on the US media, saying he has “forcefully condemned hatred and bigotry” but this goes unreported. (BBC)

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North Korean police and other officials prey on women with near-total impunity, a rights group said Thursday, in a rare report on sex abuse in the isolated nation. (AFP)