Nasir Zarummai, Sokoto S&T Commissioner is dead

ITRealms:

The ugly and cold hands of death have taken away the Sokoto State Commissioner for Science and Technology, Hon. Nasir Zarummai, reports ITRealms.

Nasir, as he is fondly called, passed on Friday night, 4th of March 2016 at Usmanu Danfodio University Teaching Hospital after a brief illness, according to Media Assistant to APC Sokoto, Bashar I. Jabo, in a press statement made available to correspondent.

ITRealms recalls that late Hon. Nasir Zarummai was born in Sokoto in Sokoto North Local Government Area of Sokoto State on 4th April 1973. 

He attended the Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto and graduated with Bachelors Degree Computer Science in 1998. 

He was the Information Technology (IT) administrator at the University from 2000 – 2005, before becoming the State Technical Coordinator ID Card project 2003 – 2004, United Nations System (WHO, IT Assistant) in Nigeria 2005 – 2007. 

Nasir was also the Special Adviser on ICT to Sokoto State Governor (2007– 2013) before his appointment as a Federal Commissioner, Federal Character Commission, prior to his last public assignment as the Commissioner Science and Technology, Sokoto State.
Late Hon. Nasir is married with children.

 
May his soul rest in perfect Peace, Amen

+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) 

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Pix: late Hon. Nasir Zarummai

TSA: Group accuses Saraki, Senate of undermining Buhari's anti-corruption war

ITRealms:

The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL), has accused Senate President, Bukola Saraki, of undermining the efforts of President Mohammadu Buhari over the anti-corruption crusade, reports ITRealms.

The group in a letter to the Senate President, said the Nigerian Senate, under Saraki’s leaderhip is working at cross-purposes with its own campaign for the adoption of Made-in-Nigeria products by canvassing for the acquisition of foreign revenue aggregation software to replace an existing one created by a Nigerian in Nigeria. 

CACOL also accused Saraki of manipulating the Senate to frustrate the Treasury Single Account (TSA) regime currently being implemented via Remita, electronic payment platform developed by SystemSpecs Limited.

The letter dated March 2, 2016, comes on the heels of report of the  Joint Senate Committees on Finance; Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions; and Public Accounts, which had recommended the termination of the contract between Systemspecs and the Central Bank of Nigeria [CBN] on the implementation of TSA via the Remita platform.

According to the Executive Chairman, CACOL, Debo Adeniran, the Senate under Saraki is playing double standards, especially given that in one breath, the Senate Report “severally insinuates that there is no valid contract between SystemSpecs, the company that provided the Remita TSA collection platform and the CBN and in another breath, recommends that the contract should be immediately terminated.”

“Our investigations however reveal that the CBN and the OAGF independently issued at least five circulars/letters at different times where Remita is specifically mentioned. Can institutions as big and structured as the CBN and OAGF do this without any contract between it and a vendor,” queried CACOL.

The group went on to label the Senate’s recommendation for termination of the contract as “provocative, retrogressive, insensitive and suspicious.”

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Government-owned media to be globally competitive - Minister

ITRealms:

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said the present administration will do whatever it takes to ensure that government-owned media are globally competitive, reports ITRealms.

The Minister gave this assurance while receiving the laurels won by the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) at the Nigerian Media Merit Award 2015, saying the situation whereby the private media is preferred to the public media is unacceptable.

“We believe that in terms of human resources, talent and equipment, even in terms of exposure, there is no reason why the publicly-funded media should not do better than any media houses in Nigeria and I am happy that you have blazed the trail by coming out to win these awards,” he said.

Alhaji Mohammed said despite the fact that the competition was also open to the private media, FRCN still won these four awards, describing that as an eloquent testimony that the public media could do much better.

“We are determined to improve the quality, both in terms of engineering and content of the publicly-owned media houses in a manner that they will be able to perform much better than any media houses anywhere in Africa,” he said.

While advising FRCN to consider the award as a tonic that would spur it to greater achievements, the Minister urged the organization to continue to invest in the development of compelling contents that will improve the quality of life of its audience and expand its reach.

“I think you should seize the opportunity and especially since you are a Federal Government- owned organization, you can work very harmoniously with the Meteorological Agency and you should be able to have a programme on weather, and again another area that I think you should improve your content is on climate change...which is another topical issue that will interest Nigerians.

“All I am saying is that you need to go beyond your routine programmes and open new frontiers,” he advised.

According to Alhaji Mohammed, other areas that will enrich the content of the FRCN are dedicated programmes on the youths, women, children and family affairs.

Earlier, the Acting Director General of FRCN, Mr. Michael Oluwole, said the station had made history by winning four out of the five awards in contention at the prestigious Nigeria Media Merit.
           
The FRCN won the Station of the Year, Best Presenter of the Year, Best Producer of the Year and Best Reporter of the Year awards.
 
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NBC specutrum scam: Zinox faults links to allegations

ITRealms:

Foremost Information and Communications Technology (ICT) conglomerate in Nigeria, the Zinox Technologies Limited, has faulted a report published in the Vanguard Newspaper on Thursday March 3^rd linking it to the illegal lodgement of proceeds of the sale of broadband spectrum to telecommunication giants, MTN by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), reports ITRealms.

According to the report, the NBC had received the sum of N34.1 billion on July 28, 2015 from MTN as proceeds of lease of broadband spectrum bandwidth licensed to MTN by the commission, a controversial deal which has met with stiff disapproval from other telecoms players in Nigeria. 

The report had gone on to state that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had commenced investigation into the matter after top officials of the NBC had reportedly diverted N10 billion out of the sum received to four companies which the NBC allegedly gave contracts without bidding.

In a swift reaction to the publication, Company Secretary and Legal Adviser, Zinox Technologies Ltd., Barr. Chris Eze Ozims described the allegation as the handiwork of hatchet-men eager to rubbish the company’s hard-earned and long-standing reputation for integrity.

“Zinox was not paid a kobo by the NBC. We are indeed shocked to read from Vanguard Newspapers that Zinox Technologies Limited was one of the companies the NBC paid cash to.

“We wish to make it clear that till date, we are yet to receive a kobo from the NBC for duly approved contracts which we executed. As a strong technology company with credible capacity and advanced competencies, we had participated in a bid process for the NBC license for supply of Set-Top boxes for the digital rollover.  We were successfully pre-qualified and had paid N50 million to the NBC for the license. Thereafter, we were invited to bid alongside other companies and we won and were awarded a contract to supply 150,000 units of the boxes.

“Till date, a single kobo has not been released to us for the supply of the items. The Federal Government of Nigeria, the NBC and even the EFCC are fully aware of this. It is, therefore, embarrassing to the Management of the company and our local and global partners to have our names linked to any breach of due process at the NBC,” he noted.

Noting that the company will not hesitate to consider legal avenues of seeking redress for the malicious and unsubstantiated claims, Barr. Ozims reaffirmed the company’s commitment to the growth and development of the Nigerian ICT sector as well as the democratization of access to information, jobs and wealth creation for millions of Nigerians through its knowledge democracy platforms.

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No plans to handover NIPOST to foreigners – Shittu

ITRealms:

The Minister of Communications, Barr. Adebayo Shittu has denied insunations making a round that he wants to handover the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) to unknown foreigners, ITRealms reports.

Refuting this allegation through his Special Assistant on Media, Mr. Victor Oluwadamilare, the Minister said ordinarily, they would have ignored the innuendoes surrounding NIPOST, as there is no iota of truth in the said story, except for the likelihood of Nigerians being misled on genuine intentions of the government to reposition and revitalise NIPOST.

Oluwadamilare in putting the records straight, said the Government of the day has no plan whatsoever to either “privatize NIPOST nor hand it over to foreigners to manage.”

In a related development, Shittu said he is determined to succeed in office and deliver on all his promises, hence he streamlined the appointments of his aides. 

They are Messrs Abdullah Adeyanju Binuyo – Special Assistant (Technical); David A. Awotunde – Special Assistant (Admin); Victor Oluwadamilare – Special Assistant (Media) and Hon. Razak Bayo Olubodun – Personal Assistant. 

According to Oluwadamilare, this development which is with immediate effect, is in line with the Federal Government guidelines on the appointment of aides by Ministers.

 +Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) 

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