Azikiwe Nnamdi

By Nathan Nwakamma

A forum of journalists in the south-eastern of the country, known as Izunwanne, has called for the declaration of every November 16 as a public holiday to honour the first President of Nigeria, the late Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the call was made in a letter to south-east governors made available to the media on Friday in Yenagoa.

The letter, signed by the chairman of the forum Mr Abuchi Anuenyiagu, the forum cited a historical background to justify the call to honour the late Azikiwe.

They recalled that Nigeria attained Republican status on November 16, 1963, which coincided with the birthday of Azikiwe.

It is is a known fact that Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, as President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, was instrumental to the inauguration of November 16 as Nigerias Republic Day.

The concept was to make that day, a National Day. The letter read.

It noted that Zik was the symbol of Nigerias nationhood, considering his leading role in the pre-independence struggle for self-rule by Nigeria.

Others they noted was his initiative to end the civil war, and his great ideas and liberal ideals that never discriminated against any Nigerian ethnic group.

The group explained that it was on the basis of all these that the forum urged the south-east governors to support and spearhead the initiative for the declaration of November 16 being the birthday anniversary of Zik as a national day.

The group urged governments of the five states in the south-east geo-political zone to emulate their south-west counterparts, such as in the case of June 12 struggle and take lead to declare November 16 a public holiday in honour of Azikiwe.

They said that Azikiwe, fondly referred to as Zik of Africa, was a south-eastner who once led the defunct Eastern Region and recorded great achievements in his time before advancing the campaign to the national level.(NAN)

Source: NAN News

AGF Abubakar Malami

By Ebere Agozie

The UN and the European Union (EU) have reiterated their support to Nigerias efforts to eradicating Sexual and Gender Based Violence.

The representatives of the UN and EU reaffirmed the commitment at the inauguration of a Inter-Ministerial Management Committee on Eradication of Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) in Abuja.

UllaMueller, the representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), who noted that Nigeria has witnessed a spike in sexual violence with the COVID-19 pandemic, however, commended Nigeria for rising to the challenge and called on all for support.

We cannot say it often enough; we all have a responsibility to end gender based violence.

It is a devastating occurrence that happens every day in Nigeria and it is also a reality that women and girls live in fear every day.pandemic within a pandemic.

Malami charged the committee to give their best to save the country, especially the women and children from this menace.

To achieve this, the members must carry out a holistic examination of all issues ranging from legal, socio-cultural to economic perspective.

You are also expected to develop and implement effective approaches for prevention and effective responses whenever the crime occurs.

He added that the enormity of the problem calls for a targeted approach and concerted effort of all relevant stakeholders.

You all have been carefully selected to work assiduously together and come up with lasting solutions to the problem of SGBV in Nigeria.

You will be collaborating with the United Nations and Civil Society Organisations to tap from their wealth of experience on the issue and ensure best practices in the attainment of this objective.

The News Agency of Nigeria Reports that the committee has representatives from the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Health, Women Affairs, the Police, Civil Society Organisations, among others. (NAN)

Source: NAN News

President Muhammadu Buhari

By Ismaila Chafe

President Muhammadu Buhari has felicitated with retired military officer and former Federal Commissioner for Information, Maj.- Gen. I.B.M Haruna as he clocks 80 years on Saturday.

Mr Femi Adesina, the presidents spokesman in a statement said Buharis congratulatory message was conveyed via a letter addressed to the retired military officer.

In the letter personally signed by the President to the former General Officer Commanding (GOC) 1 Division, Kaduna, titled AN OFFICER AND GENTLEMAN TURNS 80, the President said: I am delighted to felicitate with you on the occasion of your 80th birthday.

Yours is a life that has impacted our country in diverse ways, and you deserve all the accolades that can come your way as you attain this landmark age.

From one of the pioneer intakes in the Boys Company (later Nigeria Military School) in 1954, to Regular Officers Special Training School, Teshi, Ghana, and then to Mons Officers Cadet School, Aldershot, England (1959), you were prepared for service all the way.

You contributed in no mean way in the war of peace to keep Nigeria one, and thereafter, served as Quarter Master General, Nigerian Army, and General Officer Commanding (GOC) 1 Division, Kaduna, among others.

Under your tenure as Federal Commissioner for Information (1975-1977), the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) were established.

Also indelibly imprinted in our history were your roles as Chairman, Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC 77), Chairman, Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Chairman, National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Chairman, Arewa Consultative Forum, and many others.

Your people know your worth, and they gave you the title, and you continue to serve them faithfully.

As you turn 80, I wish you good health, strength and sound mind. (NAN)

Source: NAN News

WHO

By Cecilia Ologunagba

Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, the Director-General (D-G ) of the World Health Organisation (WHO), has urged everyone to play a part in preventing a further spread of COVID-19.

He also warned that there would be no return to the old normal.

Ghebreyesus who made the call at a news conference at WHO Headquarters in Geneva, said that COVID-19 cases worldwide had surpassed 15 million and nearly 620,000 deaths.

Most cases, or 10 million, were in just 10 countries, with the United States, Brazil and India accounting for nearly half; the US had passed the milestone of four million infections.

We are asking everyone to treat the decisions about where they go, what they do and who they meet with, as life-and-death decisions because they are.

It may not be your life, but your choices can be the difference between life and death for someone you love, or for a complete stranger.

The director-general said that COVID-19 had disrupted the lives of billions across the globe, adding that it was understandable that people would want to get on with their lives.

But we will not be going back to the old normal. The pandemic has already changed the way we live our lives.

Part of adjusting to the new normal is finding ways to live our lives safely, he advised.

He said that in recent weeks, outbreaks associated with nightclubs and other places where people had gathered had been reported, even in locations where virus transmission had been suppressed.

We must remember that most people are still susceptible to this virus. As long as it is circulating, everyone is at risk.

Just because cases might be at a low level where you live, that does not make it safe to let down your guard.

Ghebreyesus underlined that anyone, regardless of age or where they live, could help lead in efforts to beat the pandemic and build back a better society.

In recent years, we have seen young people leading grassroots movements for climate change and racial equality.

He said that the world needed young people to start a global movement for health, for a world in which health will be a human right and not a privilege. (NAN)

Source: NAN News

Twitter

Twitter saw strong user growth but lower revenue in the second quarter, the social media giant reported on Thursday.

Its advertising demand suffered amid the coronavirus pandemic and protests.

The company said that the revenue was down by 19 per cent year-over-year to million, the company said.

Advertising revenue plunged 23 per cent, to million.

Global spending on advertising plummeted earlier this year as the pandemic hit, and saw a gradual, moderate recovery in the second quarter.

But Twitter noted that many brands slowed or paused spending in reaction to the protest movement against racism sparked by the death of a black man, George Floyd, in Minneapolis Police custody in May.

Demand gradually improved once brands returned after the protests subsided, the company said.

Twitter incurred a 1.2-billion-dollar net loss in the second quarter, noting its results were impacted by a reversal of a more than 1-billion-dollar tax benefit recorded in 2019.

The messaging platform also saw an operating loss of million, compared to a 76-million-dollar operating income a year earlier.

Chief Executive, Jack Dorsey, highlighted tremendous growth in audience and engagement,with Twitters daily user base increasing a record 34 per cent year-over-year, to 186 million.

Last week, Twitter was hit with a wide-scale cyber security attack that saw an array of accounts of influential figures hacked.

Dorsey said the company has taken additional steps to improve resiliency against targeted social engineering attempts.

It has implemented numerous safeguards to improve the security of its internal systems and is working with law enforcement. (dpa/NAN)

Source: NAN News

Oil rigs

Stakeholders in the oil and gas sector have called for proactive fiscal policy in the petroleum industry to fast track investment and infrastructure development in the country.

The stakeholders disclosed this at the Virtual workshop on Leveraging Fiscal Regulations to Attract Investments in the Petroleum sector, on Thursday.

Mr Osten Olorunsola, Chairman, Energy Institute Nigeria, said that the oil and gas sector in Nigeria needed a lot of investment to meet with the current global challenges.

He stated that globally, the industry had witnessed decline in product demand and low price regime, adding that only low cost molecules would be able to make it in the market.

Olorunsola said that the sector in Nigeria needed to transform to meet with current trend as the sector was not buoyant as perceived by many.

He noted that the Nigerian government need to define what energy transformation meant to it and focus to ensure that it delivered on policies that would develop the sector.

We need steady revenue, growth in all spheres of the sector and value-oriented leaders.

We need to speed up with legislation to ensure that oil in the ground does not remain there and also create enabling environment for business to thrive.

All these will give rise to sustained investment, he said

Olorunsola further said that fair sharing remained the bone of contention in designing fiscal policy.

He advised that the new policy must ensure that change of government would not affect the sector, and must be simple, transparent, socially inclusive and flexible.

Beyond competitiveness, we must aim at fiscal profitability.

Investment in the sector will be enhanced with good fiscal regulations.

We need more transformation in fiscal policy to achieve the desired result, he added.

In her remarks, Mrs Audrey Joe-Ezigbo, President, Nigerian Gas Association (NGA), said that Nigeria need to move as a nation that could generate foreign exchange and create employment.

She said that a lot need to be done to attract investors in the sector adding that Nigeria could take a cue from what Egypt had done in the past five years to develop their oil and gas sector.

The NGA president said that while Nigeria oil and gas sector contributed 9.14 per cent to GDP, other oil nation like Angola and Kuwait contributed 50 and 40 per cents respectively to their nations GDP.

Like Nigeria, Egypt has 61 Trillion Cubic Feet (TCF) of gas and 42TCF of gas yet to be discovered. This is small compared to what we have here in Nigeria.

They started importing gas when they saw that domestic production was no longer meeting domestic demand.

Egypt with good policy recognized this and unlocked their economy and had significant discovery and today, they are self sufficient, she said

She noted that fiscal policy was significant to investors, adding that the NGA believed that natural gas could help bring about a lot of changes in the industry.

Joe-Ezigbo noted there was need to look at types of resources in the country in creating the fiscal policy and ensure a stand-alone policy for gas.

She advised that government should also create landscape that incentivises gas, look at bottlenecks in contracting among others.

It is imperative to pass fiscal policy, for upstream, downstream and midstream with gas having a stand-alone policy.

The policy must address the dearth of capital and investment and must see gas as economic enabler that should not be over-taxed, the NGA president added.

Also speaking, Mr Joe Nwakwe, Chairman, Society of Petroleum Engineers, Nigeria Council, said that government must know that oil and gas also belonged to the next generation and hence good policy was imperative.

He said that the new fiscal policy must capture that to be realistic, adding that issues of Host Community must be critically looked into to ensure safety of workers.

Fiscal policy must strengthen licensing of operations and ensure peaceful production environment.

The host communities must also be happy with the business happening in their area, the SPE chairman said.

Source: NAN News

Court Symbol

An Abeokuta Magistrates Court in Isabo, Ogun, on Thursday sentenced a 47-year -old man, Omotola Ayokanmi, to three years imprisonment for impersonation.

The Magistrate, Mrs Folake Ogundele, sentenced Ayokanmi after he pleaded guilty to a charge of impersonation.

Ogundele sentenced the convict without an option of fine.

Earlier, the Prosecutor, Insp Fortune Akhenegor, had told the court that the defendant committed the offence on July 16 at Federal High Court, Abeokuta.

Akhenegor said that the defendant unlawfully presented himself as legal practitioner.

He said that the convict went ahead to move an application for bail for a matter he appeared in as a counsel at the Federal High Court in Abeokuta.

The judge found fault in his address to the court which made the judge interrogate him.

He later confessed that he only had a diploma in law and had never been called to the Bar.

He confessed that he had been using his wifes gown who was called to Bar in 2006, but not practising.

The defendant has been practicing since 2007, he said.

Akhenegor said the offence contravened Section 484 of the Criminal Law of Ogun, 2006.

Source: NAN News

The red Chamber

By Kingsley Okoye

The Senate on Thursday called on the Interim Management Commitee (IMC) of the Niger Delta Development Commission(NDDC) to refund the N4.923 billion payments, made to staff and contractors in breach of procurement process.

It said that the refund should be made to the NDDCs Account with immediate effect.

The resolution of the Senate was sequel to the adoption of recommendations of the Senate Ad Hoc Committee, investigating the alleged misappropriation of N40 billion by the current IMC.

The recommendation of the committee was presented to the Senate by the Chairman, Sen. Adetumbi (APC Ekiti).

A breakdown of the refund included Overseas Travel to the United Kingdom N85.7million, Scholarship grants N105.5 milliion, Union Members trip to Italy N164.2 million.

Other refunds to be made to the NDDCs Account by the IMC are: payment made for Lassa Fever Kit, N1.96 billion; payment for Public Communication valued at N1.12 billion, and COVID-19 fund, N1.49 billion.

The Senate also approved the recommendation that all expenditures on historical contracts and obligations like hotels, court judgment among others be refunded, as the payments were not provided for in the budget.

The recommendations approved by the Senate also indicated that henceforth, the NDDC should report directly to President Muhammadu Buhari.

It also recommendeded that the President should dissolve the IMC and set up a board for the commission.

The Senate recommended that oversight of the forensic audit should be transferred to the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation, to ensure transparency.

It urged the Federal Government to appoint a renowned auditor to supervise the forensic audit.

It recommended the strengthening of the NDDCs procurement department through appropriate staff engagement, by appointing staff with procurement chartered status, improved staff training among other policies on procurement process.

Similarly, the Senate recommended a review of the corporate social responsibility of the NDDC, adding that it wasdifficult to find a correlation between the Niger Delta community development and the cash invested in the zone.

According to the upper legislative chamber, the continued cash injection in the Niger Delta has not worked under the various IMCs.

The Senate harped on the need for government to intervene, by stepping down the IMC and properly consititute a board with specific mandate, to address the pains of the Niger Delta people. (NAN)

Source: NAN News

Gov. Of Bauchi, Bala Mohammed

By Huseyn Mbar

Bauchi State Government has approved the reduction of Right of Way (RoW), charges for telecommunication companies from N4,500 to N145 per linear meter.

This is contained in a statement signed by Adama Ibrahim, Information Officer, State Ministry of Lands, and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Bauchi.

The statement said that the reduction was in tandem with the approval made by the National Economic Council and the governors forum.

It said that the gesture would create a user-friendly environment for information sharing that would aid social and economic development.

It is also part of ongoing reforms to ease business transactions to woe national and international investors into the state, it said.

The statement noted that with the development, the state would achieve full broadband by 2021 that would accelerate the deployment of affordable and reliable modern high speed connectivity.

It will attract new businesses, create jobs, improve access to quality of healthcare and digital education as well as boost internally generated revenue.

It will equally spur the telecommunication companies to further invest in broadband infrastructure to trigger ancillary online services, especially in the field of education, it said.

It hinted that the state government also approved waivers to defaulters of ground rents within the period of COVID-19 pandemic effective from January 1.

The statement explained that the government extended the waiver to payers of Deed Registration Fees after the expiration of grant to cushion negative impact of the pandemic.

Source: NAN News

Dr Isa Pantami, Minister of Communications and Digital economy

By Jessica Dogo

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami, has inaugurated six completed projects across the country under the digital economy sector.

The inauguration, which was done virtually by Pantami on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari were geared toward supporting the developing a digital Nigeria.

The Minister noted that the drive was in line with the present administrations economic diversification, ensuring security, fighting corruption and leveraging on deploying Information Communications Technology (ICT), in achieving its agenda.

He said that the six projects could be mapped to relevant pillars of the National Digital Economy Policy Strategy (NDEPS).

The projects include the Tertiary Institution Centre, Enugu; the Nigerian Communication Satellite Northwest Regional Office, Kaduna; and Information Community Centre, Katsina.

Others are Information Technology Hub, Kaduna; Information Technology Development Hub, Lagos; and Emergency Communication Centre, Kaduna.

According to him, President Muhammadu Buhari unveiled NDEPS on Nov. 28, 2019 initiated by the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy as part of key requirements of the e-government master plan.

The President had directed government institutions to create a digital transformation technical working group that will work with the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy.

The digital transformation is to ensure seamless and coordinated implementation of projects, programmes and policies.

The Plan is made up of eight pillars: first of the pillars is Developmental Regulation, which he said, is conceived as the regulation that promotes and supports development.

We are working on development regulations, digital integration, building solid infrastructure, deployment of emerging technologies, as well as local content promotion and we want all hands on deck.

The Minister emphasised the importance of Digital Literacy and Skills which were the second mainstay of the digital economy policy, adding that a digital economy was unrealisable without skills.

In Nigeria, what we lack is not certificates but skills. We need to change our perception. Degrees should be a validation of skills.

By providing skills, we will have many entrepreneurs who will be potential employers and not potential employees.

The projects are the reflection of the dividends of the sustainable developmental programmes of the administration of Mr President, Pantami said.

In his chairing remarks, Gov. Umara Zulum of Borno commended Pantami for his efficient supervision and policy direction of the parastatals under the ministry.

Zulum said that the projects were a testimony of effective implementation of policy through projects and programmes of the Ministry, noting that this would create employment thereby steering the economy and contributing greatly to Nigerias GDP.

The establishment of these six projects in different parts of the country will no doubt create employment opportunities and stimulate the national economy.

Honestly speaking, the activities of the ministry of communication were not known to many of us prior to the coming of Pantami, he said.

The Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, commended Pantami and described the gesture as infectious enthusiasm.

They said he is new but his infectious enthusiasm really pervades both the new and the old.

He has shown the power of remitting youthfulness in assisting our government and Mr President to deliver the promises that have been made, he said.

On his part, the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Danbatta, said that the projects were as a result of enabling policies and institutions under the supervision of the Ministry.

Danbatta also said that the projects would enable the digital transformation of Nigeria.

Dignitaries at the event include: Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, Managing Director, Nigerian Communications Satellite Ltd (NIGCOMSAT), Managing Director, Galaxy Backbone (GBB) Limited, Prof. Mohammed Abubakar, among others. (NAN)

Source: NAN News