Jonathan orders investigation into his alleged phone conversation with Moroccan King Mohammed

ITRealms:

President Goodluck Jonathan has denied either speaking with King Mohammed of Morocco or told anybody that he had a telephone conversation with the Monarch, reports ITRealms.

This is coming as ITRealms confirms that President Jonathan has ordered full investigation into the furore that developed over the allegation, describing it as misinformation.

According to the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati in a press statement made available to ITRealms, it was true that President Jonathan has been speaking with some African leaders to seek their support for Nigeria’s candidate for the position of President of the African Development Bank (AfDB).

In continuation of his efforts in support of the candidacy of the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina for headship of the AfDB, President Jonathan indicated that he would like to speak with the King of Morocco, the President of Algeria and the President of Egypt.

Abati explained that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was consequently directed to make necessary contacts with the embassies of the three countries and arrange for President Jonathan to speak with their leaders.

“Since that directive was given, President Jonathan has spoken with the Prime Minister of Algeria and subsequently sent Vice President Namadi Sambo to Algiers as Special Envoy to follow-up on his discussions with the Algerian Prime Minister on support for Nigeria’s candidate in the coming elections for the AfDB Presidency,” he said.

The President, Abati further said has, however, not yet spoken with King Mohammed VI and President Al-Sisi of Egypt as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs must know.

Following the furore thereof, President Jonathan has ordered the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Aminu Wali to urgently undertake a full investigation of the claim which emanated from the Ministry that the President spoke with King Mohammed VI.

He said the investigation is to identify all those who were responsible for the unacceptable act of official misinformation which has resulted in an unnecessary diplomatic row with another country and national embarrassment.
"It is also expected to unveil the motives of the culprits" he said.

President Jonathan, he told ITRealms has also ordered that prompt and commensurate disciplinary action be taken against the culpable  person or persons.

Abati noted that while awaiting the outcome of the investigations, President Jonathan urges Nigerians to disregard the vituperations of opposition elements, who have, true to type, latched on to the regrettable faux pas as a fresh opportunity to unpatriotically denigrate the government of their country and advance their irresponsible quest for victory at any price in the coming elections.

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NCC kicks off discussion on 70/80 GHz band spectrum

 ITRealms

Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Thursday, in Lagos reiterated its readiness to open up the 70/80 Gega Hertz Band spectrum for licensing with a discussion with stakeholders, reports ITRealms.

Welcoming participants to the forum, the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, represented by a member of NCC a Commissioner, Alhaji Mohammed Bintubi, said the forum was an “explorative meeting, which is aimed at advancing and multiplying the potentials of a particular range of frequency band for the benefit of the industry, and Nigerian nation.”

He also stated, “the 70/80 GHz  spectrum band is yet to be fully explored and exploited in Nigeria” Juwah urged stakeholder’s to share their views and thoughts about how best to put this to use.

Juwah further stated that the most important thing is how to share these resources for the common good of the investor community, service provider community and consumer of services community.

ITRealms reports that EVCnoted the challenge on how to balance the interest of the stakeholders and yet deliver the values available or desirable from this scarce resource.

Among the aims for which the stakeholder’s forum was organized include addressing the growing demands by operators for data centric, high speed and high capacity links for the metropolitan environment, as it is a replica of fibre in the air; to further assist the commission’s drive for National Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) initiative.; Reduce the pressure and management challenges experienced with the traditional Microwave Frequency Bands; Ensure broadband services become more accessible and pervasive with quality that is desirable; Ensure operational flexibility and robustness that would enhance available infrastructure and resources in the industry, ITRealms gathered.

Juwah, told ITRealms that the commission will not relent in adopting global best practices in all its regulatory activities, especially in very technical areas like allocation and utilization. He said that is why the commission has developed various policies and guidelines that guide most of their processes including frequency allocation and pricing.

Engr. Austin Nwaulune, Director, Spectrum Administration, NCC, the discussion focused on the plans, licensing, proposed models and pricing.

Speaking to ITRealms, he said that the band otherwise known as the e-band has the range of spectrum of 71-76 on one leg and 81-86 on the other, totaling 5 Gega Hertz.

He equally said it is good for wireless service network, enterprises and campus connectivity and has the benefit of easing pressure on micro radio frequency programmes. 

He said that licensing is not an all comers affair, that it is regulated, stressing that licensing fee in USA is about 75 dollars while in UK, it is 50 pounds per link, in UAE and Berlin, it is full licensing while in Hong Kong it is free but in Nigeria it is going to go for N14,000 per link.

Among industry giants that graced the occasion were Mrs. Iyabo Sholaike, Director Finance Services, NCC; Ubali Maska, Executive Commissioner, Technical Standard, NCC; Engr. Lanre Ajai, President, Association of Telecom Companies of Nigeria, Mr. Ken Spann, Managing Director, Wave Technical.

Cyriacus  Nnaji/GEE  

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Signal Alliance Gathers ICT Practitioners for Customer Week Workshop

Signal Alliance (SA) lived up to its promise to host customers in Lagos, as participants discussed “Diversification and Innovation, a Technological Roadmap to Grow Nigeria’s Economy” reports ITRealms.

The workshop, ITRealms gathered was designed to chart an innovative means of diversification of the country’s economy was graced by managing director of companies and reputable practitioners in ICT industry, at the Civic Centre Lagos.

These gurus  that also formed  the panel at the workshop include Gerald Ilukwe, Founding MD, Galaxy Backbone and Former General Manager, Microsoft Nigeria; Miss Yemi Keri, Managing Director, ICT Agency in Edo State; Victor Okigbo, Head, IDEA Hub; Kachi Onubuogu, Executive Director, Commercial, Promacidol; Richard, Amafonye, Chief Information Officer, Skye Bank; Pius Ekeh(Jr.), representing Mr. Chris Uwaje, Former President ISPON; while Mr. Chinyere Mba-Uzoukwu, Managing Director Info Graphics, and Mr. Moses Ibraimah, Head, Branding and Marketing, Signal Alliance jointly moderated the workshop. The Key notes speaker was Mr. Olawale Oweye of CISCO.

Although both the panelists and the participants were of the view that there have been great loss of opportunities in the past to place Nigeria on topmost pedestal of technological innovativeness, ITRealms learnt that they are still of the opinion that the key to propel the nation upward  economically could only be achieved through technology.

According to Yemi Keri, who asked the question, ‘how did we get to where we are today as a country?’ She stated that before the discovery of oil the nation’s economy was fully diversified, with the western Region producing cocoa, East was involved in palm oil while the North was known for ground nut, and then oil came and we forgot the other sectors, today the oil is going down, there is insecurity in the country, so for now Information Technology is the only viable solution to the country’s problems.

While Gerald Ilukwe asserted that everybody is mentally lazy and looking for shortcuts, lamenting on a situation where every software developer is going into payroll and asked the question, how many payrolls can we design? He commended Nollywood for their innovativeness and urged ICT practitioners to show more innovativeness.

The Executive Vice Chairman, Signal Alliance, Mr. Collins Onuegbu, had earlier, welcome all to the workshop.

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE

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NIRA reserves right to disallow certain domain names – Folayan

… Hosts one-day Media College on.NG
ITRealms:

The Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA)like other registry in the world reserves the right to maintain a given list of domains that could be disallowed for registration or even withdraw same if already registered, according to its Vice President, Mr. Sunday Folayan, reports ITRealms.

NIRA, ITRealms reports, is the body responsible for the management of the Nigeria’s country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) .NG in the public interest of Nigeria and global internet communities.

Speaking at the weekend during a one-day Media College on .NG for the nation’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) media practitioners at NIRA House, Lagos,Mr. Folayan, who is the chief executive of Skannet Engineering, outlined some of the names not allowed on .NG to include offensive, restricted and premium names.

Other facilitators alongside Mr. Folayan, at the one-day Media College held penultimate Thursday, March 5, 2015, at NIRA House, Lagos, harped on the need for media adoption and reportage of .NG with patriotism.

ITRealms reports that the college theme was “Effective Reporting of Domain Name Industry in Nigeria,”andattracted crème de la crème in the ICT sector, saw NIRA president, Mrs. Mary Udumawelcoming participantsby encouraging Nigerians to embrace .NG and urged migration to .ng by those already on other domain name platforms.

Also, in his welcome remarks, Communication and Publicity Chairman of NIRA and Group Executive Editor, DigitalSENSE Africa Media andGroup Executive Editor, DigitalSENSE Africa Media, Mr. Remmy Nweke, noted the importance of the media college, reminding media practitioners the role to ensure effective and excellent reportage on .NG based on facts.

He acknowledged the fact that DNS has been underreported in the media globally, hence NIRA decided to enlighten Nigerian media practitioners with DNS knowledge to boost understanding and public adoption as may be applicable.

Historically, according to a member, NIRA Executive Board of Director, Mr. Akimbo A.A. Cornerstone, from 2005 till date saw NIRA’s humble beginning, following series ofnational stakeholders’ meetings before the name NIRA was adopted in addition to setting of protem board of trustees and pioneer EBOD.

He traced the evolution from American Randy Bush who managed the technical aspect of .NG while Mrs. IbukunOdusote was the administrative contact person to the intervention of former President Oluegun Obasanjo to the birth of NIRA as multi-stakeholder association as requested by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

The publisher of Nigeria Political Economist and chairman, Foundation for Knowledge Economy (FKE), Mr. Kenneth Ugbechiedefinedadomain name as a subtree of a larger tree that contains resourceswhich root contains pointer to .ng, for instance.

He pointed out the need to promote DNS to the public and .NG precisely so as to preserve the unique digital identity and forestall domain name speculations, stressing that when media promote DNS industry, they promote Nigeria’s .NG.

“We are in fact promoting and aiding the effective connection of Nigeria Internet to the World Internet,” he said.

Mr. BiyiOladipo, Treasurer, NIRA, highlighted the fact that DNS business needs structure, tapping of core opportunities and ancillary, just as he described a domain as virtual real estate, which has value, appreciates with time and could be leased, rented or sola at any time for a good money.

This, he said, is because domain name has value and must be easily remembered with melody, meaning and branding, noting that core aspect of the opportunities inherent in DNS business includes registry like NIRA, accredited registrars, and resellers who deal directly with registrants, whereas the ancillary involves hosting, security, web designing and some other support services like legal, finance to name a few.

Head, Legal Services and Board Matters, National Information Technology Development Agency(NITDA) Abuja, Mr. Emmanuel Edet told participants that Internet Governance is the development and application of shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures, and programmes that could shape the evolution and use of the internet.

This, he stressed include infrastructure, demonopolisation, liberalization, costs and price regulation, spectrum allocation and licensing, interconnectivity, technical standards, domain names and convergence among others.

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE

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ISPON rewards Imoke, Johnson at President’s dinner

ITRealms:

The Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON) last weekend, hosted stakeholders to its annual President’s dinner at Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island in Lagos, with Cross River State Governor, Senator Liyel Imoke and Minister of Communication Technology, Dr. Mrs. Omobola Johnson standing up to be counted, reports ITRealms.

This year’s edition, held on Friday, March 6, 2015, ITRealms also reports, had its theme: Software and Local Content in the Nigerian Oil and Gas Ecosystem, witnessed the presentation of awards to individuals and the state that have played key roles in ICT in the country. 

They included the Honourable Minster, Ministry of Communication Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, and the Executive Governor of Cross River State, His Excellency, Senator Liyel Imoke and Cross River State Government for supporting and promoting software in Cross River.

In his welcome address, the chairman of the occasion and immediate past president of ISPON, Dr. Chris Uwaje, ITRealms learnt, thanked the present leadership of ISPON for making this year’s President Dinner possible and stressed that it is time for less talk and more action on how to tap from this multibillion dollar sector of the economy through local content, ITRealms reports

Senator Imoke in his opening remarks, said, his people share a common vision with ISPON in positioning Cross River for application of ICT and the benefit therein as a leader in the technology. 

The minister, Mrs. Omobola Johnson said ISPON is doing a good job and stressed the need to acquire relevant skill in the industry. According to her, ITRealms learnt, her ministry is working closely with both states and private sec

tor in ensuring the growth of ICT in the country

President of ISPON, Mr. Pius Okigbo, Jr. thanked all the guests, saying that he is happy that the President’s Dinner which usually takes place in February and which was nearly marred by the election time table, finally became a reality.

The Executive Secretary, Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Dr. Ernest Nwakpa, spoke on the progress which NCDMB has made since the president, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, signed the Local Content Policy into law in 2010, noting, they have been able to change the mindset of Nigerians to believe in the local content initiative.  

“How can we get our people to go entrepreneurial” he asked, stressing that this government is supportive of anybody wishing to do business in Nigeria. He went further to say that over the past 50 years past governments had concerned themselves with selling of oil and collecting royalties but all that have changed now since 2010, ITRealms gathered

He harped on capacity building, making sure that foreign companies doing business in Nigeria set up facility in Nigeria, that way, job creation and other ancillary services would be enhanced for Nigerian’s benefit. 

ITRealms further reports that Nwapa told ISPON to define what they want to do, noting that what is required basically is communication between ISPON, the oil and gas sector, maintaining that NCDMB is looking forward to working with ISPON.

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE

 

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