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President Muhammadu Buhari

2023: Tinubu May Dump APC For Another Party Over ‘Fear Of Defeat’

by Leading Reporters March 20, 2022

written by Leading Reporters

Reports emerged on Saturday claiming the National leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is “working on an alternative party” to vie for the 2023 presidency.

Tinubu, who is presently the leading aspirants, is aware of plots by some party stalwart and governors to deny him the party’s ticket.

According to the report, Buhari, who had refused to name his preferred candidate over fear he or she would be killed, is said to be favouring a younger aspirant.

Tinubu, who is refusing to be caught off guard, is not putting all eggs in one basket to avoid being caught unawares by an “unfavourable outcome” of the APC primary.

It was gathered that the former Lagos State governor is planning to use the Ekiti State Governorship election to test the waters.

The APC leader is reportedly aligning with Segun Oni a one-time Ekiti Governor and SDP flagbearer, because he is aware he does not have the backing of Governor Kayode Fayemi, who is also interested in the presidency.

“The President wants a younger person and that’s not Tinubu.

“Fayemi wants to be President if the office is zoned to the South”, a source told Daily Post.

“If he fails, he may get the SGF (Secretary to the Government of the Federation) position as long as the next President or Vice are not from South-West.

“Tinubu is monitoring all that’s happening and he seems to have pitched his tent with the SDP.

“The truth is that civil servants like Oni are ready to vote for him.

“With his cold war with Fayemi and Oni’s popularity, Tinubu has developed a soft spot for the SDP.

“And this isn’t just about Ekiti election, he may contest on the platform if APC denies him a ticket.”

It was gathered that Oni’s running mate, Otunba Ladi Owolabi was picked after consultations with Tinubu’s camp.

“Oni, 67, is from Ifaki while Owolabi, 68, is an Ado Ekiti indigene.

Sources also accused the Fayemi administration of allegedly stopping Tinubu from using the Adetiloye Hall during his visit to Ekiti monarchs a fortnight ago.

“The authorities stopped the use of the venue because Fayemi isn’t working for his political leader’s ambition.

“In fact, by the time Tinubu landed, Fayemi left the state via helicopter.

“They said he had to be in Abuja. He could have briefly showed up at the parley with the Obas but didn’t want to be seen with Tinubu in such a gathering”, another source told Daily Post.

March 20, 2022 0 comments

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Buhari Salutes, Celebrates Adeboye at 80

by Folarin Kehinde March 1, 2022

written by Folarin Kehinde

The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), Tuesday joined members of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, the Christian community, particularly clergymen in Nigeria and abroad, in celebrating with Pastor Enoch Adeboye on the occasion of his 80th birthday, March 2, 2022.

Buhari’s celebratory message is contained in a statement signed on Tuesday by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, titled ‘President Buhari rejoices with Pastor E.A. Adeboye on 80th birthday.’

According to Adesina, “President Buhari felicitates with the wife, Pastor Foluke Adeboye, family members, friends, and relations as the General Overseer turns an octogenarian, with clear evidence of walking the path of a righteous man by dedicating his life to the service of God, and humanity.

“The President recalls his private and public meetings with the renowned preacher and teacher of the Bible over many years, most remarkably the visit when he was recuperating in London, 2017, appreciating Pastor Adeboye’s warmth and friendliness, which he also extends to leaders and others from all walks of life.”

On the cleric’s 80th birthday, Buhari said he believes Adeboye’s contributions to the betterment of Nigeria and other countries stand out clearly as testimonies of his divine calling, impacting greatly on education, health, and infrastructural development, which include many urban and rural roads.

The President saluted the focus of the RCCG leader on works of the Kingdom and peace for the nation, praying that his path will be like a shining light, with grace for good health and strength.

March 1, 2022 0 comments

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JUST IN: Buhari Postpones Signing Of Electoral Bill

by Folarin Kehinde February 23, 2022

written by Folarin Kehinde

President Muhammadu Buhari has reportedly postponed the signing of the amended electoral bill to Friday.

The reworked Electoral Act Amendment Bill has been on Buhari’s desk since January 31, 2022, when it was transmitted to the president by the National Assembly.

Amidst protests over the delayed signing of the bill, Buhari’s senior media adviser, Femi Adesina, had said the president would sign the bill on Tuesday or Wednesday (today).

“It could be signed today; it could be signed tomorrow. In a matter of hours, not days. Hours could be 24 hours, it could be 48 hours; not days, not weeks,” Adesina had said while appearing on Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily on Tuesday.

But the TV station on Wednesday reported that President Buhari had postponed the signing of the bill to Friday, citing presidency sources.

Report earlier indicated that the presidency described the civil society organisations protesting the delayed signing of the reworked bill as ignorant of provisions of the 1999 Constitution.

“It is on record that the amended Bill was sent to the Presidency on January 31, 2022, which means that the Executive could do due diligence on it till March 1, as prescribed by the Constitution,” the presidency had said in a statement shared on its Twitter account on Monday.

February 23, 2022 0 comments

Headlines Opinion

Buhari and his National Assembly friends

by Leading Reporters February 20, 2022

written by Leading Reporters

By Tonnie Iredia

Mutual distrust and suspicion between the Saraki-led 8th National Assembly and the Buhari-led Executive arm of government was an open secret.

However, the problem did not begin with delayed passage of annual budgets as some people tended to amplify; it was there from the very beginning because Bukola Saraki, the then Senate President and Yakubu Dogara, Speaker of the House of Representatives got into office against the arrangement of their party, the All Progressives Congress APC. If the 8th National Assembly was recalcitrant, the APC and the Presidency did much to hurt the leadership of the legislature. The case against Saraki at the Code of Conduct Tribunal and the refusal of the Senate to clear certain presidential nominees for critical political offices and many other antagonistic acts were all perceived as part of the cat and rat game which characterized the era. It was obviously not the best environment for good governance and President Muhammadu Buhari never missed any opportunity to denounce the development. Indeed, it was not a conducive option for attaining national development which the different of arms of government must be collaboratively committed to.

The end of tenure of the 8th Assembly presented to a reelected President an opportunity to ensure that the rancour of the last 4 years did not recur. So, the reelected ruling APC stringently avoided the elements that prompted the unnecessary bitterness of the past. The leadership of the National Assembly had greater personal reasons to act as good party members. The new Senate President Ahmad Lawan and his colleague in the House of Representatives Femi Gbajabiamila, were the same two party members previously anointed for their jobs which were overturned. They were thus not positioned to exhibit any headstrong signs. It was therefore a good beginning for both arms of government. The lack of understanding of this background was what made some analysts to express apprehension over a likely rubberstamp legislature – an apprehension exacerbated by the publicized manifesto of the leadership of the legislature as a team prepared to support anything from the Presidency.

The current National Assembly has understandably been run like what may go down in history as the most cooperative relationship with the Presidency in Nigeria. But how genuine is this friendship between both arms? This question is relevant because while many see the National Assembly as malleable, others suspect the deliberate underdog position as a ploy to insulate its members from public scrutiny of hidden illicit gains. None of the two elements can help the country’s growth because a positive aspect of the separation of powers is the opportunity the design gives to all arms of government to function together in the interest of the people. In other words, wherever one arm goes wrong should be corrected by the other; none should by commission or omission facilitate the perpetuation of any wrong by the other. This may not be easy to attain as both parties may not wish to roughen the feathers of the other even where the silence hurts society.

The 2022 Budget and the Electoral Act Amendment Bill have however left gaps for criticisms of a supposed cooperative relationship between arms of government that is hardly beneficial to the public. At the signing of this year’s budget into law, President Muhammadu Buhari was constrained to deprecate what he called “worrisome changes” to the budget by the National Assembly. We disagree with those who misunderstood the President as envisaging a situation where the legislature would pass the budget without ensuring that it would facilitate good governance. What should bother anyone is the scope of the changes whose numerical strength could derail governance. As Buhari disclosed, as many as 6,576 new items (not previously discussed behind closed doors by the two arms) were suddenly inserted into the budget as if it was a very poorly written report by a junior staff which his supervisor had to virtually rewrite.

The President does not appear to be the only one who is worried, BudgIT, a foremost civic-tech organization engaged in the advocacy for fiscal transparency and public accountability in Nigeria has explicitly expressed greater worries on behalf of many. From BudgIT we are able to learn that there are 460 duplicated items amounting to N378.9billion in budget 2022. Worse still is that several projects were inexplicably assigned to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). For example, the National Agency for Great Green Wall, set up to prevent land degradation and desertification afflicting parts of the country is to get N1.3 billion for purchasing motorcycles, street lights and other projects which are outside its mandate. The Ministry of Environment, which is not a security agency reportedly has N67.8million to construct ‘Gun Armouries.’ This trend ought to worry any well-meaning Nigerian more so as this is not the first time of its occurrence in our budgets. Last year, as many as 316 duplicated projects were inserted into the 2021 Budget approved by the National Assembly.

The point must be made again that the ample time which our legislature spends on scrutinizing the budget is commendable because that is more likely to bring out the best of the budget. Interestingly, they do not appear to subject the request for loans by the executive to the same type of scrutiny. This is particularly curious because despite the very loud public disapproval of the numerous loans incurred by this government, none of the requests for loans is ever rejected and no changes are ever made either to the amount needed or the nature of its components. Yet, the National Assembly is made up of the same professionals of different academic and occupational backgrounds who always pick holes in budget estimates. Could it be that the Executive arm is never able to deploy the same expertise it puts into working on loans into the preparation of budgets or are presidential liaison officers not the same for budgets and loans?

The absence of a unity of direction between the Presidency and the National Assembly on the subject of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill is even more complicated. The refusal of the President to assent to the bill because of its anti-democratic feature of disallowing our political parties from having options of primary election modes cannot be faulted. But it is obvious that some legislators may have felt bad because as friends who speedily approve executive requests, Buhari should have also reciprocated by accepting the wishes of his friends to reduce the powers of governors. But then by refraining from perpetuating what is wrong, the President taught his friends a huge lesson that it makes more sense for a leader to support his friends only when their viewpoint will not hurt the public. Whereas legislators who are lawyers are fully aware that a law which is targeted at a specified group is bad law, both themselves and their other colleagues who are not learned should hereafter realize that to blindly support a friend can be injurious to both a policy and many innocent persons involved in the process.

Accordingly, our legislators who are mandated to ensure that nominees to certain public offices are fit and proper persons should stop the ‘bow and go’ contrived scheme which allows nominees with poor baggage to assume offices. The power to screen a person for an office, as we have always argued in this column, cannot be logically extended to include the power to exempt some from screening. If the Presidency nominates people for offices, the constitution requires the senate to reject those who are unfit such as partisan politicians nominated to the electoral body because the contrary would amount to perpetuation of wrong and would in turn hurt the electoral process. As President Buhari is currently struggling to reduce both our numerous institutions and government’s inability to meet University teachers’ requirements, this is not the time for friends in the legislature to be making fresh laws to create more institutions. People must learn to support their friends in office to end well.

Tonnie Iredia
February 20, 2022.

February 20, 2022 0 comments

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Nigerian Institutions graduates are lazy, unemployable: Prof Pantami

by Leading Reporters February 16, 2022

written by Leading Reporters

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Pantami, has alleged that most graduates from Nigeria institutions are unemployable and are too dependent on “government jobs.”

He decried the trend among Nigeria graduates chasing government employment rather than venturing into entrepreneurship which gives them the impetus to employ others, thereby bridging the unemployment gap in the country.

“The main challenge is not unemployment,” Mr Pantami stressed. “I am not discarding unemployment, but the major challenge is unemployability, a situation where I cannot be able to do the technical work that my certificate has stored that I have studied.”

Mr Pantami, currently facing the accusation of fraudulent professorship, further accused the youths of being too lazy to start a job on their own.

“As the situation is today, most of our young people after graduating from school are not in any way thinking of entrepreneurship. They are only interested in looking for government employment,” Mr Pantami said of Nigerian youths. “There are many job opportunities in engineering, ICT, oil and gas but most of our youths with (a) certificate if you employ them, you will discover that they will not be able to do the work you have employed them to do.”

The minister stated this at the prize presentation ceremony for the Katsina National Talent Hunt Challenge in Katsina on Tuesday.

“So on (a) daily basis, foreigners are coming to Nigeria to come and do the job for us,” Mr Pantami added. “Most of our technical people are engaged in administrative work, while we rely on other people to come and do the technical job.”

Mr Pantami himself is being accused of academic fraud. The Academic Staff Union of Universities deemed the minister’s appointment by the Federal University of Technology Owerri as a professor as illegal.

“You cannot be a minister and a lecturer in a university. It is an encouragement of illegality,” Mr Osodeke said. “Pantami has to quit as a minister and be tried for doing double jobs within the same federal system. He is not qualified. Pantami should not be treated as a professor.”

In documents seen on the media, Mr Pantami said he accepted the professorship on the instruction of President Muhammadu Buhari.

“This decision is sequel to my briefing to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on Friday, March 26, 2021, and his permission for me to go ahead and share my knowledge and experience in the academia, which is a form of community service to our citizens,” Mr Pantami had defended himself.

Mr Pantami had accepted the position at the Imo-based institution before it had been formally offered to him, based on the reported documents.

The Islamic cleric accepted the position in March. However, the appointment letter offering the professorship post to Mr Pantami has August 20 as its date.

February 16, 2022 0 comments

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Why Supreme Court Nullified Buhari’s Executive Order 10

by Leading Reporters February 12, 2022

written by Leading Reporters

The Supreme Court on Friday revealed that the reason it nullified Executive Order 10 by President Muhammadu Buhari is because the country is “run on the basis of rule of law.” Recall that Buhari had in May 2020, signed the order into law.

According to the Apex court, the Nigerian leader overstepped his powers by promulgating such a rule. The order grants financial autonomy to the legislature and the judiciary in the 36 states of the country.

The order also mandates the accountant-general of the federation to deduct from source amount due to state legislatures and judiciaries from the monthly allocation to each state for states that refuse to grant such autonomy.

That order has now been voided by the Supreme Court which ruled Friday in a suit by the 36 states against the federal government. In its ruling, the seven-member panel of Supreme Court judges, in a split-decision of six justices to one, held that the Constitution provides a “clear delineation between the state and federal government.

”“The president has overstepped the limits of his constitutional powers,” the court ruled about the president promulgating Executive Order 10.

“The country is run on the basis of rule of law,” the judges said.

The majority decision adopted the expert opinion of Musibau Adetunbi and Mahmud Magaji, two of the Senior Advocates of Nigeria, invited by the Supreme Court to advise it on the matter. More details later…

February 12, 2022 0 comments

Headlines Business

Nigeria may be Broke but don’t need Money to Turn the Tide

by Leading Reporters February 10, 2022

written by Leading Reporters

Nigeria has continued to borrow money to fund its budgets, the 2022 budget, and the country does not plan to stop borrowing soon, as details on its Medium Term Expenditure Framework show that between 2022 and 2024, the country will borrow N14.8 trillion.

Debt servicing, a consequence of the heavy borrowing, continues to gulp huge amounts and between 2022 and 2024, debt servicing will take a total of N14.6 Trillion.

To put it concisely Nigeria is broke, maybe not in the same way Musa or Nkechi are broke two days after receiving a salary, but broke all the same.

President Muhammadu Buhari told the global community that the country needs $1.5 Trillion to bridge its infrastructure gap.

However, has more money always translated into more development for Nigeria?

Figures available on the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development portal show the total public revenue of the country.

(The public revenue of the country for 2020 and 2021 was not added due to the COVID-19 pandemic which altered financial demands and spending of the country and all countries across the globe.)

Between 2018 and 2019, public revenue increased with the revenue hitting N13 Trillion. Unfortunately, increased revenues have not always guaranteed better economic outcomes. Economic indicators showed that GDP growth remained at 2% in both years.

The inflation figures of the country have remained in double digits impacted by both demand-pull and cost-push forces. Dependency on imports has also put pressure on the country contributing to inflation especially when the increase in the price of imported goods may also drive up prices of goods and services in the country. The naira has continued to reduce in value as exchange rates makes the country’s dependence on imported goods near suicidal. Yet in 2019, importation figures increased up to N5.3 trillion, an increase of 49.34% over the 2018 figure.

The various policies of the government have failed to reduce the food importation bill. Importation of agricultural products rose by 6.6% between Q4 2018 and Q4 2019. Wheat importation bill stood at $1.48billion as of 2019, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity. Although the country’s rice production increased, the country has yet to achieve self-sufficiency.

Nigeria has also battled with poverty, with the World Bank noting that over 40% of Nigerians representing 83 million persons live below the poverty line while another 25% (53 million people) were vulnerable.

Food insecurity is heightened as the country has struggled in recent times to meet its local demand for food. Scarcity occasioned by insufficiency and strengthened by insecurity has led to a surge in food prices. Although the country has recorded some increase in the Agricultural sector’s contribution to GDP over the years, in real-time, the results have not translated to a positive effect on final economic indicators nor the country’s food security positioning.

In 2016, the country introduced N-power to tackle unemployment but the unemployment figure has not dropped since then, growing from 14%, 19% to 23% respectively in 2016, 2017 and 2018. The N-power intervention and other related policies of the government did not reduce the unemployment percentage.

Recurrent, Capital Expenditure Ratio, Corruption May be Denying Nigeria Adequate Results of Increased Revenue

Nigeria has over the years experienced high recurrent expenditure over capital expenditure across key sectors. The ability to invest in key infrastructures that may have impacted on key indicators by increasing job creation, improving local manufacturing and production etc. have reduced the value of development and increase in public revenue could offer.

Corruption is a significant factor in the loss of development benefits from increased revenue. The corruption perception index of the country stood at 145 of 180 countries in 2020 with the country scoring 25 points out of a possible 100, according to Transparency international.

Although Nigeria dropped one place in 2020 having ranked 146 in 2019, its record has historically been poor, ranking 1444 in 2018 and 148 in 2017. This is despite the introduction of the Treasury Single Account by the government in 20016 aimed to harmonize financial operations and ensure a transparent public sector. If the Auditor General’s report is anything to go buy, the government and its agencies continue to miss the mark on transparency and accountability

Budget Deficit, Debt Servicing May Deny Nigerians Full benefit of Increased Public Revenue

A report earlier noted the high cost of debt servicing in the country for instance between January to May 2020 Nigeria spent N72 on debt servicing for every N100 earned. The 2022 budget has a 22% debt servicing figure of N3.8 trillion. This means that a substantial part of Nigeria’s public revenue will be spent on debt servicing, monies that might have aided in boosting key economic indicators.

With Nigeria planning to borrow another N14.8 Trillion between 2022 and 2024, that will shoot up the cost of the country’s debt servicing and is expected to gulp N14.6 Trillion in the same period (2022-2024).

Review of Nigeria’s Current Key Fiscal Policies

Nigeria’s policies on improving the economic outcomes of the country have suffered various handicaps. For instance, the diversification of the economy to Agriculture has been greatly affected by insecurity, climate change, among other issues.

Policies for reducing the unemployment burden have not yielded much results as the figures have continued to grow. 500,000 Nigerians were reported to have benefitted from the N-power program as of 2020, but there has been no impact on the rate of unemployment in the country which ended the year at 32.5% . The president launched another initiative, Nigeria Jubilee Fellows program aimed at employing twenty thousand Nigerians who just graduated from the National Youth Service Corps. Again this is unlikely to affect the employment projected to rise even higher in 2022.

The country operates the Retail Dutch Auction system for its foreign exchange. What this implies is that the Central Bank sells Forex through Banks to the end-users. The apex bank announced in July 2021, that it was suspending the Bureau-De-Change operators and suspended the issuance of new licenses. This move was perceived by actors as part of a strategy to improve the naira’s positioning but the value of Naira has remained unstable at N414 to $1 as at the time of this report. Not only are import prices higher which drives up inflation, Nigeria’s debt servicing costs will also increase as the naira weakens.

Exports, government spending and local manufacturing and production are a major part of increasing Gross Domestic Product but increase in price of raw materials compounded by insecurity and insufficient government investment in capital projects are likely to keep the country’s GDP growth rate nominal.

Nigeria may need money but clearly mere increase in revenue does not necessarily translate to development and without improving its key economic performance indicators, Nigeria may continue to be in a vicious cycle of lack, dependence and borrowing.

Better policies, a genuine fight against corruption and open and accountable governance are critical to lifting Nigeria out of poverty.

While more money may mean more resources to do more things, the country may need to improve on corresponding effective policies that are commensurate with the growth in public revenue.

The question may be that the value of those monies at that time also determines what they can do, but the value relies on working policies too. (dataphyte)

February 10, 2022 0 comments

Headlines

NIMC Server Hacked, As Millions of Nigerian NIN Stolen

by Leading Reporters February 9, 2022

written by Leading Reporters

Over three million National Identity Numbers of Nigerians have been stolen after a hacker known only as Sam broke into the server of the National Identity Management Commission.

Revealing how easy it was for him to breach the NIMC server and access personal information of millions of Nigerians in an article he shared on infosecwriteups.com, the hacker boasted that he got access to “juice” on the Nigerian Government agency’s server and that he could go ahead to do whatever he desired with other sensitive data at his disposal.

As the technical hitch that has bedeviled the portal of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) persisted yesterday, it is feared that the portal may have been compromised by hackers, data security experts have said, However, Engr. Aliyu A. Aziz DG/CEO is yet to commit.

It was revealed that telcos had continued to turn back subscribers seeking to retrieve lost, damaged or stolen SIM cards due to their inability to verify their customers’ NIN.

Responding to complaints from Twitter users, MTN Nigeria said it could not process SIM swap and update requests due to challenges with the NIMC portal.

“We are sorry we currently cannot process SIM swap and update requests due to external challenges. We appreciate your understanding and will post an update once this has been resolved,” MTN said.

Agencies such as immigration, police and road safety are among government agencies affected, according to officials.
Staffs of the Nigeria Immigration Service who spoke to Leading Reporters, that their are people who have been waiting for over 7 months for their NIN verifications to drop for international passport processing.

Displaying a defaced National Identity card of a Nigerian alongside the article, the hacker said, “I’ve got one more output for s3 bucket, I casually tried to access it without any hope, and damn! The s3 bucket is full of juice.

“I just simply got access to their (Nigeria) data of internal files, users and everything they have. I can download everything, even the whole bucket. I am sure that the bucket is full of juice.

“I wanted to look at more files but as we have to follow bug bounty rules I stopped doing more.

“I’ve got one more s3 bucket with nuclei and it also contained about 4–5 gigs of data.

“I’ve rewarded 5250$ for only one report and 0$ for the second one even it contained so much sensitive data,” the hacker wrote in the article that has continued to generate reactions from some Nigerians on Twitter especially tech enthusiasts.

A user on the micro-blogging platform with the handle @isidags while reacting to the development said, “I’m shocked Nigerians are shocked.

“Seems you people don’t know the government and country you’re involved with.”

Another user known as @boluxxxx while commenting said, “Jokes aside, this is enough reason for Buhari to sack Pantami.”

Berating Nigeria’s weak cyber security, another Twitter user, @bespokeKENErd, said, “It was only a matter of time before this happened.

“Nigeria’s information security is ridiculously lax. So careless with sensitive data.”

@St_Gothica while reacting to the issue said, “This is exactly why I never wanted to do the NIN registration. Delayed it as long as I could.”

Another Twitter user, @The_Jonathanian, said, “Somebody should tell Sheik Pantami that the most sensitive data of Nigerians under his care have been compromised and floating in the wild.”

The hacking of the NIMC server has not only exposed Nigeria’s weak cyber security but also highlighted the danger the country’s residents and investments were currently under.

The latest cyber attack comes less than two months after the Nigerian Communications Commission in November 2021 issued a warning that an Iranian hacking group was planning to carry out cyber espionage across Africa.

A statement from the agency had further disclosed that the hackers were targeting telecoms, Internet Service Providers, and Ministries of Foreign Affairs in Nigeria and other African countries.

The incident also comes months after the President Muhammadu Buhari administration while mandating Nigerians to enroll for National Identification Number claimed that it was going to stop crimes in the country including those perpetrated via the Internet.

Speaking during the launch of the National Policy for the Promotion of Indigenous Content in Nigerian Telecoms Sector and Revised National Identity Policy for SIM Cards registration in May 2021, President Buhari said, “The NIN will cover one of the weaknesses in our security structure. We will be able to easily identify and know the personality of Nigerians.

“We will identify people easily, including the crooks.”

Assuring Nigerians of how vital the new system would be to crime fighting in the country, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, in June 2021, claimed that incidents of terror such as banditry and kidnapping in the country had significantly reduced as a result of the insistence by government for persons in Nigeria to register for NIN.

Pantami went further to say that the improved database will protect Nigerians more than ever before.

But despite those assurances, the latest attack has exposed the failure of the President Buhari administration to protect Nigerians from cyber criminals.

Over 60 million Nigerians had so far been captured on the national identity database, according to the NIMC.

NIMC denies hacking

NIMC debunked the notion that its portal has been hacked, but that the portal was only undergoing routine maintenance.

Over 60 million Nigerians and legal residents of the country have been registered and given their unique identity numbers otherwise known as NIN.

We further reports that some banks and telecommunication operators in the country have refused to attend to some customers since last week due to the “maintenance” being carried out on the identity portal.

The federal government has made it compulsory for Nigerians to supply their NIN before they can access certain services offered by some private companies and government agencies.

When the NINs are supplied, the companies and agencies will then verify the unique numbers using the NIN verification portal of NIMC.

However, NIMC’s portal has been down since last week and the development is said to have affected the issuance of international passport, account opening at banks and SIM replacement by telecommunications operators.

NIMC, in a statement on Monday by its spokesperson, Kayode Adegoke, said it was an unreasonable action for the organisations to shirk their duties.

The commission said these organisations had an alternative platform through which they could render services. The alternative platform according to NIMC is TOKENISATION. “Tokenization is working!!!”. Declare NIMC.

Adegoke, who is the NIMC Head Corporate Communications, said: “Even though the NIN verification service (NVS) might be down due to maintenance by one of our service providers of its infrastructure, the alternative platform – TOKENISATION is up and running. No one should be debarred of any service on the guise of NIN not being verified”.

“The NVS issue has not in any way affected our other operations and services-Enrollment/issuance of NIN and other services going on”.

“There is the need to ask questions from the Telcos, The Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Banks and others on the reason for turning down customers in the guise of NIN not being verified due to the temporary unavailability of the NVS, while the alternative platform- Tokenization is working!!!

“NIMC NVS platform is not the only verification platform available for use, but Tokenisation which protects the identity of NIN holders is also up and running!!!

“And for accurate information, it is not a NIMC problem, rather, a government service provider has embarked on maintenance of its infrastructure, which has affected most government agencies that rely on it for the provision of IT service.”

Galaxy Backbone contradicts NIMC claims on maintenance

Galaxybackbone, a government agency which mandate is to store all data for MDAs and provide backup for their data, apologised for the temporary service outage on the network.

“The management of Galaxy Backbone Limited (GBB) regrets the temporary outage of some of its services and the inconvenience being experienced by some of its customers across the country”, the agency said in a statement signed by its Head of Communications, Chidi Okpara. News Credit: saharareporters/dailytrust

February 9, 2022 0 comments

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BREAKING: FG Suspends Planned Petrol subsidy Removal

by Folarin Kehinde January 24, 2022

written by Folarin Kehinde

The federal government has suspended the planned petrol subsidy removal till further notice.

The government had planned to stop subsidy payments on petroleum products from July this year.

Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance, budget, national planning, said this during a meeting held at the national assembly on Monday in Abuja.
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The meeting was convened at the instance of Ahmad Lawan, president of the senate, with Timipre Sylva, minister of state for petroleum resources, Mele Kyari, group managing director, NNPC Limited, in attendance.

Details Later

January 24, 2022 0 comments

Headlines

2023: ‘Obasanjo’s rejection of PDP, sign of imminent failure’

by Leading Reporters January 24, 2022

written by Leading Reporters

Osita Okechukwu, the Director General of Voice of Nigeria, VON, has described the rejection of Peoples Democratic Party’, PDP, overtures by former President Olusegun Obasanjo as a signal to another defeat in 2023 presidential election.

Mr Okechukwu wondered whether PDP leaders have refused to understand that Nigerians are suspicious and no longer interested in reinforcing the PDP’s share the money culture.

He said it smacks of political incorrect move for a party, whose membership card was publicly shredded to go back asking for the support of the same statesman that rejected its association.

Mr Okechukwu, a foundation member of the APC, made the remarks when he spoke with journalists in Abuja, maintaining that the rejection of PDP’s request to re-join the party by Obasanjo comes as failure signal at the eve of 2023 Presidential election.

PDP bigwigs led by its national chairman, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, visited Obasanjo in his Abeokuta Ogun residence, during which the former President remarked, “I have been with the party right from inception. Whatever I do in my own life, because I became President on the platform of PDP, PDP will continue to be part of the history of my life.

“But, having said that, the day that in my ward I decided to tear my PDP card was the day I ceased to be a member of PDP and that day I vowed that I will not be a member of any political party again, but I will remain a statesman in Nigeria, in West Africa, in Africa and indeed in the world.

“I have my sympathy for our sister political party, PDP, over this misadventure. Just imagine the uncommon electoral boost the party would have generated if Chief Obasanjo had accepted their request.

“The statesman’s re-entry could have boosted the morale of the rank and file of the PDP. In short the rejection is a bad omen, particularly coming at the eve of the crucial 2023 presidential election,” he said.

Asked his take on the swipe of the PDP Chairman, Mr Ayu, who berated President Muhammadu Buhari and APC as clueless and plunging Nigeria into eternal debt, Okechukwu quipped, “I have my tremendous respect for His Excellency Iyorchia Ayu, an intellectual and seasoned academian; however, one needs to name some of the huge and uncountable infrastructure deficit PDP bequeathed to Buhari’s regime, which compelled borrowing for development:

“The Lagos-Ibadan, Lagos-Abeokuta, 2nd Niger Bridge, Kano-Maiduguri, Abuja-Makurdi, including other 13,000 federal road network nationwide.

“Re-equipment and upgrading of the Armed Forces and other Security Agencies emasculated by the PDP.” he said. NAN

January 24, 2022 0 comments

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