STOP! Kidnapping, killing Catholic priests

Weekend Sermon@ITRealms:

After a deep reflection over the past few days on the death of Rev. Fr. Cyriacus Onunkwo, was killed by supposed kidnappers, I sat down to write this just to beg the killers of priests to STOP.

I would have written this on the Feast of the Martyrdom of Saint John the Baptist, but it’s like Chris just wanted this now.

Priest dresses decently, looks good and for those who have cars, they keep their cars neat, the way the priest encourage the faithful at times makes people imagine whether they have any problem and whether they will ever have any in life ... Priests’ own world  seems better? Noooooo! So many of the priests are carrying loads of worries.

So many are suffering; so many can't let out these worries just because these problems are so overwhelming that they may even get faithfuls discouraged. Just like his bad behaviour may affect the faith of the faithfuls too. So many priests suffer daily and die daily with their worries and pains.

Who will they complain to?

Do not envy him because you see him living in a parish mansion that does not belong to him, drive a car owned by the parish or a car bought for him and fueled by friends. Eats food provided by good hearted faithfuls. When many see these, they thought that all is well with him ... your are wrong. Go close to him and plead to God that the priest opens up and tell you his worries.

My dear friends, things are not all well for the priesthood. Priests have their own problems. So many are sick, some do not feed well, some cannot even buy clothing for themselves; so many cannot afford fueling their cars much more maintaining the car you see them drive. They all depend on the charity of good hearted Christians.

Why kill, kidnap a priest?

Do you hope to get a dime from him? Oh my God. Do you think he is rich? Don’t be deceived. We are not rich. Stop killing us. What have we done? We become priest to serve you … to help you know God, open windows of salvation for you and your families.

We become priests to bring you closer to God, to help you get a place in Heaven, instead of allowing you to die in sin and end up in hell. We become priests to save your soul, to help you receive the sacraments, whenever you are born, baptize, when you are sick, sacrament of anointing of the sick, when you have sinned, sacrament of penance; when you are ready to take up a wife or husband … sacrament of matrimony.

To administer to you the sacrament of the Eucharist to energize you as you journey in faith and most importantly, to call down Jesus Christ daily in the Eucharist to come dwell in and around you to fulfill His promise of “I will be with you till the end of time.”

Stop killing us, we have no wife, no children and at times, families even abandon us. So many see us as wolves, so many want to devour us. We are daily misunderstood. Agreed that we are not Saints but weak humans who are prone to human mistakes, so please stop killing us.

So many insults us, we hardly sleep in the night because we are at prayers for you. Few years ago, Fr. Nnabuife was gruesomely murdered too.

In many parishes today, so many of the criminal minded parish council chairmen and women even turned diabolical against the priests. So many Christian murderers see nothing good about the priest. The priest is not a Saint. He has weaknesses, but can you allow who called him to judge him?

God’s judgment starts with teachers of which the priest is number one, so he is to be the first to face God's judgment on the last day. Why take him out of the world forcefully? What has he done to you? Stop killing us.

*Courtesy/pix: @Fr. Alexander U. Okere of Owerri Archdiocese, and edited by GEE@ITRealms.

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Zinox chairman, Ekeh to preside News Express 5th lecture

ITRealms:

The Nigerian serial Information and Communication Technology (ICT) entrepreneur, Dr. Leo Stan Ekeh has been confirmed to preside the News Express 5th anniversary lecture scheduled to hold at Sheraton Hotel & Towers, Ikeja, Lagos, on Thursday, September 28, 2017, reports ITRealms.

Confirming this to ITRealms on Saturday in Lagos, the publisher by News Express, Isaac Umunna, expressed delight on the choice of Ekeh.

“We are honoured to have Chief Ekeh, Chairman of foremost Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Company, Zinox Technologies Ltd., and pioneer of online publishing in Nigeria, accept to chair the News Express 5th anniversary lecture. With him directing affairs, we are confident of delivering an event that will meet the expectations of all who would attend,” Umunna said.

The Lecture, with “National Unity and the Demand for Restructuring” as theme, has Niger State Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello, as Guest Speaker. He will speak on “National Unity and the Demand for Restructuring — A Governor’s Perspective.”

Governor Sani Bello will be supported by an array of distinguished personalities from Nigeria and abroad whose identities would be made public in due course.

ITRealms recalls that News Express, which debuted on August 29, 2012, is one of Nigeria’s most popular and influential online dailies. It is read by hundreds of thousands of people around the world and records annual traffic of upwards of 100 million.

Nonye Dom/ED, ops

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Nigerian stakeholders seek industry synergy for secure cyber space

ITRealms:

Stakeholders at just ended African Digital Awards (ADA) 2017, have expressed worries over lack of synergy in the sector to battle cyber-crimes in the country, reports ITRealms.

This is coming as participants randomly said that Nigeria losses some N127 billion annually to cyber-crimes.

ITRealms reports that ADA is a twin event, which annually features an award ceremony after an intensive workshop tagged Nigeria ICT Impact CEO Forum (NIICF), where critical issues affecting the industries are assessed and solutions proffered by industry regulators and stakeholders from the private sector of the industry.

Awardees at this year’s ADA leg of the event included Most Outstanding Telecoms Company of the Year which went to MTN Nigeria; Regulator of the Year was clinched by Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Most Outstanding Government Agency of the Year grabbed by Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NigComSat Ltd.) and away ICT Woman of the Year won by the due Chief Executive Officers of NIGCOMSAT, Ms Abimbola Alale and Chief Executive Officer of MainOne, Ms Funke Opeke.

Also, the award jury rated Kunle Azeez of New Telegraph as Most Outstanding ICT Editor of the Year; former President of the Nigeria Internet Group (NIG), Engr. Bayo Banjo emerged as Broadcast Personality of the Year; Chief Executive Officer of Teledom Group, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem, won Broadband Luminary Award; Mr. Babatunde Mo’ Aguda emerged winner of Youth Innovative Award while Mr. Chris Kehinde Nwandu won Most Outstanding Online Editor of the Year.

Meanwhile, discussions at this year’s NIICF forum was around “Broadband Access: the Challenges of Cyber Security: Threats and Effect on Social Media Era.

While the issue of cybercrime, in its ramifications is said to be a global phenomenon, the stakeholders, including the Ministry of Communications, Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), Nigerian Communication Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT), MTN, MainOne, Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), among others were on accord that Nigeria needed to develop a strategy backed with thorough implementation of the Cybercrime Act, 2015 towards curbing the economic losses.

According to them, in Nigeria and other countries around the world, the internet has become an integral part of everyday life and has become a key development index, whose measurement is taken by development-oriented organisations and agencies.

While noting that there was no doubt about the positive impact of the internet and its peripheral technologies in enhancing people’s daily lives, they were also on accord that Internet has brought about the advent of cybercrimes, which are now threatening the socio-economic landscape of people across the globe.

Speaking at the forum recently held at the Oriental Hotel in Lekki, Lagos, Minister of Communications, Mr. Adebayo Shittu, noted that within a short period of time, Internet had evolved from being a simple tool for accessing information and conducting communication and commerce to becoming a significant venue for social activity and interaction.

He, however, said that whilst this means better and more convenient services and a boost in the economy, it also creates a viable avenue for cyber attacks and criminal activities which could cripple or destabilise the national system. “As the world increasingly depends on technology and the cyberspace, especially increasing access to broadband for daily businesses, it gets more and more insecure.

Yearly, he said thousands of cybersecurity problems are identified in cyber space and technologies from known and unknown global actors leaving Internet users vulnerable.

Shittu said cybersecurity is more than a challenge for government as it poses a huge obstacle to the country’s digital transformation agenda in social and economy desired for the country, stressing, however, that the Federal Government has estimated an annual loss of over N127 billion to cybercrime activities in the nation, the minister said.

According to him, “Nigeria has had its fair share of cybercrimes between 2016 and 2017 alone, stressing that the recession in 2016 brought about numerous attacks targeted at organisations and individuals.” Noting the most recent targets in Nigeria were unsuspecting patronisers of ponzi schemes.

“In the wave of austerity, many people lost money to the said schemes carried out through cyber platforms and others fell victims to malicious and compromising websites.”

Indeed, in the electronic payment space, data from the Nigerian Inter-bank settlement Systems Plc (NIBSS) showed that in the first quarter of this year, over N374 million was lost to different cases of electronic frauds.

Meanwhile, Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof Umar Danbatta, explained while development of regulatory framework for broadband penetration, licensing of infrastructure service providers, issuance of wireless broadband licence and the offering of more wireless broadband frequency and services are part of the Commission’s efforts towards ensuring deepen broadband access, the Commission has been collaborating with necessary stakeholders in order to work together to also tackle rising wave of cybercrimes.

“For instance, the Commission, among others, is partnering with the ITU to establish in Nigeria a Regional Cybersecurity Centre (RCC) for Africa,” Danbatta said. ‘The centre, which will be sited in Abuja, will provide support in the area of technical manpower training, information sharing and other collaborative roles with local Computer Security Incidence Response Team (CESIRT).”

Also Convener of the forum, Mr. Tayo Adewusi, said as individuals get exposed to cyber crimes, “companies are also exposed to the risks in the course of interacting with their supply chain, partners and customers but all said and done, President of the Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Mr, Olusola Teniola, said there was a need for government to create more enabling environment for service providers and collaborate with them more in order to sanitise the industry.

Partner, M.A Banire & Associates, Mr. Kunle Adegoke, stressed the need for effective implementation of the Cyber Crime Act, 2015, saying “what we need is to be religious about the implementation and then not lose the sight of the fact that technology is always ahead of law and ‘so, the law must be subjected to periodic review and amendments in order to make it relevant at all time no matter the advancement in technology space.”

Chief Executive Officer, MainOne, Ms Funke Opeke, who also made a presentation that in capturing the broadband demand in the country, there was a need to encourage last-mile transmission of humongous internet bandwidth seating in the shores of Lagos to the nooks and crannies of the country to ensure wider access to broadband services. “Also, other challenges relating to multiple taxation, multiple regulation, vandalism and denial of right of way (RoW) must be addressed,” she added.

In the same vein, Chief Executive Officer of NIGCOMSAT, Ms. Abimbola Alale, disclosed that while her organisation has been collaborating to deploy satellite facilities and encourage their usage within the country, towards encouraging deeper broadband, “we are also working day and night o ensure that our broadband services are secure for Nigerians and beyond.”

Other stakeholders,  who spoke at the event, have emphasized that the fight against cybercrimes is currently beyond socio-political and economic exigencies, adding that as broadband access gets deeper, creating wider and unhindered access to high-speed internet, there is greater need to form strategic partnerships and collaborative alliances with stakeholders, agencies, organisations and jurisdictions with the objective of forming a common front to combat the menace of cybercrime in all its ramification and manifestations in the society.

Nonye Dom/GEE

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Adesina demands mind restructuring

Commentary@ITRealms:

Hearing some Nigerians speak (whether based at home or in the Diaspora), you discern that they are “in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity”. They spew out things that give them away as “whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones”.

What happened to grace? Where did decency disappear to? Are words not to be seasoned with salt again? What has happened to us as a people? The more rotten, the better, it seems. The fouler and odoriferous the cesspit, the more attractive, followed by applause. That seems to be the philosophy of some people today, and it doesn't matter who they are. High or low. But we cannot continue that way, if we want to be acceptable too.

The sing-song in the country today is restructuring of the polity. We want more states. We want a return to regional structure. We want a revision of the revenue allocation formula. We want six vice presidents, one from each geopolitical zone. We want those zones to be the federating units, rather than the states. And so on, and so forth.

In fact, so loud is the cacophony of voices over restructuring that if you ask 100 people what they mean, they give you 100 different explanations. But as a country, I believe we will get there someday and soon.

However, is political restructuring the most urgent thing Nigeria needs now? I don't think so. For me, what is more urgent is the restructuring of the Nigerian mind. A mind that sees the country as one, that believes that we have a future and a hope, that believes that we are one people under God. But what we see now is ruinous for any country. It is hemlock, bound to poison the entire polity, and send it to a premature perdition.

On Tuesday, the National Bureau of Statistics announced that we had exited from economic recession. It was cheery news for majority of Nigerians, save for those in the gall of bitterness. They spat in the sky, and collected the spittle with their faces. Who gave Nigeria the permission to exit recession? Who gave her the audacity of hope? How can the economy attempt to rebound, when it should sink deeper and deeper into the miry clay? They were in the doldrums, unhappy because good news came for the country. In their befuddled minds, 

Nigeria must never see a silver lining in the sky. The ravening clouds must ever remain victorious, must forever possess the sky, simply because of primordial reasons. The party in power is not my own, so why should Nigeria make progress under it? The president in office was not the one I voted for, so why should he succeed? He does not speak my language, he is not of my religion or ethnic stock, so why must Nigeria prosper under him? 

They, therefore, throw all sorts of tantrums, like a child whose lollipop is taken away, and attempt to rubbish the news on exit from recession. And those same people would canvass for a restructuring of the polity. Big mistake. Wrong priority. They need to have their minds restructured first, so that they have goodwill towards their own country, and towards all men. Left to them, they wish that when NBS releases results for the next quarter, Nigeria should have gone back into recession. Filthy dreamers! Awful imaginations! They need a restructuring of their minds, and quickly, too.

Some people spend their lifetime expecting thunderstorms and hurricanes, so they never enjoy showers of blessing. Their addled minds expect negative news, so they never enjoy good tidings. They are the type that swallow poison, and then begin to hope that it will kill the person next door.  Restructuring, restructuring, that is what such minds need. 

Chase after him. If you catch up with him, kill him. If he outruns you, poison his footsteps. That is the chant in most parts of the country today. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Hate has become their natural language. When they speak hateful words, they speak their native language, their mother tongue. Don't mid the elevated offices they occupy now, or which they have occupied in the past. They are in the throes, in the paroxysms of bitterness. Only a restructuring of the mind can save them. 

My dear senior friend, Ikemba Obosima, from Imo State, has good counsel for them, in a text message he sent to one of them recently, which he copied me: “Pain will follow him who speaks or acts with evil thoughts, as does the wheel of the foot of him who draws the cart. He is greater man who conquers self than he who kills a thousand men in war...Love will purify the heart of him who is beloved as truly as it purifies the heart of he who loves.” But will they listen? If they have not danced too far, and have not become like the dog fated to get lost, which refuses to hear the whistle of the hunter. Let them return home, to sanity.

The National Bureau of Statistics announced our descent into recession. They embraced the news, almost with sickening glee. Now, the same agency has announced exit, and they begin to question its impartiality. What kind of people are they? They want to hear only bad news? May their minds be restructured, lest bad news dog their footsteps. Malediction?  Am I cursing anybody? Not at all. Just a warning, and a call to new attitude, new thoughts, new conduct. The things we expect have a way of coming upon us. Ask the biblical Job. “What I feared has come upon me. What I dreaded has happened to me (Job 3:25).”

One of the characteristics of a hateful mind is that it conjures a lot of mischief, and purveys same as truth. And the gullible laps it up. During the health challenge of our dear President, a thing common to any mortal, big or small, of high or low estate, they filled the land with evil tidings. Oh, he is on life support machine. No, he is dead and long buried. He will never return to that office, I swear. And then, God did what He knows how to do best. He showed the Deus ex machina, His Invisible Hands. Now, the reputation of those people is hanging on life support. If only men would restructure their minds!

President Muhammadu Buhari says exit from recession is cheery news, but until the life of the average Nigerian is positively touched by the economy, he doesn't consider the job done. Very good. Even the NBS, which brought the good news, says the economy is still fragile, and the good work must continue, so that we don't slide back. That is exactly what this government would do. That is the motive behind the Economic Reconstruction and Growth Plan. So, let nobody be filled with diabolic thoughts. Government does not feel it is there yet. Action stations! All hands on deck.

A final word for haters, wailers, purveyors of fake news, or whatever you choose to call them. Evil minds wax worse and worse. A hater would envy others unnecessarily. He would conjure evil thoughts that would poison his system. He would manifest all sorts of negative tendencies that turn him into a proper child of the Devil. And at the end of it all, his master welcomes him home with open arms. “Abandon hope all ye who enter here.” (Dante's Inferno). And there will be plenty weeping, and gnashing of teeth.

*Adesina is the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari.

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Assassins shot Catholic priest after morning mass in Lagos

ITRealms:

The suspected assassins Friday morning disguised as parishioners and shot the parish priest of St Thomas Catholic Church Onilekere Cement Bus Stop, Ikeja, Rev Father Daniel Nwankwo, reports ITRealms.

Official press statement by the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Olarinde Famous-Cole, informed ITRealms that the hoodlums posed as parishioners, attended the early morning mass in the church that was conducted by the victim.

According Famous-Cole, shortly after the service, they requested to have a dialogue with Rev Father Daniel Nwankwo who granted them audience outside the church auditorium and for reasons yet unknown, one of the hoodlums brought out a locally made pistol and shot at the Rev Father.

“The Rev Father raised an alarm while the hoodlums fled the area and scaled through the fence towards an adjoining canal. The Rev Father was immediately taken to Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) for medical attention where he is currently being treated and is under stable conditions,” he said.

The new state police Commissioner, Imohimi Edgal, visited the scene and spoken with a witness who confirmed that three (3) assailant of Igbo background who were not known to be members of the church, were seen having a conversation with the Rev Father before he was shot at. 

The Commissioner of Police, has visited the Rev. Fr. Nwankwo and spoke directly with him and confirmed that the priest is been given adequate medical care and he is recuperating fast. A crack team of detectives and operational officers from the police command have been dispatched to the scene and area leading to the canal where an eye witness confirmed the hoodlums ran towards.

As said by him, five suspects have been arrested in connection with the attack, stressing that they would be diligently interrogated for vital information to aid police investigation.

Further, he revealed, the Commissioner, Mr. Edgal has advised Lagosians to be vigilant and security conscious at this time and must identify and report any strange faces and suspicious movement to the nearest Police.

He has also ordered the deployment of static police guard on 24hrs bases in all churches and mosque across the state instead of only on Fridays and Sundays like it as been done in the past.

Imohimi said, hoodlums that made an attempt on the Rev Father will be arrested and brought to book.

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Q2: Nigeria swells telecom sector GDP with N1.5tn

ITRealms:

The Nigerian telecommunications sector has swelled the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the second quarter of 2017, to the tune of N1.549 trillion, reports ITRealms.

Disclosing this in Abuja, while receiving the chairperson of Liberia Telecommunications Authority (LTA) Madam Angelique Weeks, during a courtesy visit to his office in Abuja, the Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof Umar Garba Danbatta said, telecoms sector contributed N1.549 trillion to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the second quarter of this year.

He explained that this figure represents 6.68 per cent increase from the first quarter of the year, which was at N1.452 trillion.

Danbatta also said these figures were derived from recently released National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report on the economy.

According ot him, NBS report confirmed that the telecommunications sector, during the second quarter of 2017, contributed 9.5 per cent to the GDP in contrast to 9.1 per cent contribution in the first quarter of the year. 

“We are very proud of the remarkable contribution the sector is making. Even at the recent times when the whole economy was facing challenges, the sector had remained resilient and stable,” he told the visitor who was accompanied by a team of administrators from West Africa Telecommunication Regulators Association (WATRA).

Similarly, the NCC boss told the visitors that the commission has also noticed a remarkable increase in the data usage in the country.

“The monthly data usage is about 40 million terabytes,” he declared, expressing optimism that the country would undergo a massive ICT transformation by the time the excess data capacity at landing point in Lagos is deployed to the hinterland through licensing of infrastructure companies (infracos).

Further, Danbatta noted that the broadband penetration in the country currently stands at 21 per cent, as Nigeria is inching toward 30 per cent penetration next year, which is in line with its National Broadband target.

The commission, he said, has approved spectrum trading consistent with an item of the 8-Point Agenda, optimizing the use and benefits of spectrum, to ensure that no acquired spectrum is left unutilized.

Uboshe Uboshe/GEE

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Hate speech: AFRICMIL calls for mass literacy

ITRealms:

The African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL) has called for mass literacy to address hate speech and ‘fake news’ as a way of promoting peaceful co-existence among the different groups in Nigeria and strengthening the unity of the country.

In a statement signed by the Coordinator of AFRICMIL, Chido Onumah, to mark the International Literacy Day, the organization noted that hate speech has over the years caused many crises around the world.

September 8 was declared International Literacy Day by UNESCO on November 17, 1965. Its aim is to highlight the importance of literacy to individuals, communities and societies. Celebrations take place in several countries.

The theme for 2017 as announced by UNESCO is `Literacy in a digital world’.

Some 775 million adults lack minimum literacy skills; one in five adults are still not literate and two-thirds of them are women; 60.7 million children are out-of-school and many more attend irregularly or drop out.

According to UNESCO’s "Global Monitoring Report on Education for All (2006)", South and West Asia has the lowest regional adult literacy rate (58.6%), followed by sub-Saharan Africa (59.7%), and the Arab States (62.7%). Countries with the lowest literacy rates in the world are Burkina Faso (12.8%), Niger (14.4%) and Mali (19%). The report shows a clear connection between illiteracy and countries in severe poverty, and between illiteracy and prejudice against women.

AFRICMIL noted the benefits of mass literacy in a fast-changing digital world and encouraged governments and individuals to take advantage of the potentials of the digital age to create awareness about hate speech and ‘fake news’.

The organization observed that even as the dividend of democracy made way for freedom of speech, it was never imagined that freedom of speech would translate to freedom to create hate and hurt. It regretted that the digital age had also helped to grow the monsters called hate speech and ‘fake news’, thus causing so much rage and fanning embers of war.

It urged governments to put in place measure to encourage mass literacy to counter the negative side of the digital age, adding that this was better than making stringent laws that might interfere with democratic practices.

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dotAfrica, best option for Africa in cyberspace

ITRealms:

The dot Africa (.Africa) has been described as the best option for Africa in the cyber space because of its central to Africa’s bright future online, reports ITRealms.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the South African Central Registry otherwise known as (ZACR), Mr. Lucky Masilela, made this declaration with optimism on the future of .Africa domain names, stressing that these written resolutions stated that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) will be central to Africa's future well-being and .africa is surely amongst the top African-led ICT initiatives of the last twenty years.

He also said that ZACR, a non-profit company tasked with administering the new .africa domain name on behalf of the continent has the capacity to deliver on its mandate.

ITRealms gathered that 54 African countries are now united under a single, continent-wide domain name, in line with Oliver Tambo and Abuja Declarations of the 1990s, which makes it now possible to own an Internet address, or domain name, ending with .africa.

Before now, Masilela said, there is over 8,000 of the continent’s and world’s biggest brands, businesses and individuals have registered for this exciting new Internet address.

According to him, diverse organisations ranging from banks to media companies are registering .africa domain names.

“Leading continental and international brands are snapping up .africa domain names because they recognise the importance of being associated with Africa’s bright future online. With many positive stories coming out of Africa, brands understand that .africa domain names are valuable virtual real estate,” Masilela said.

Initiatives like .africa, he further said, would help harness the power of new technologies to solve old problems, maintaining that .africa is unique in that it gives Africans an important sense of pride to help motivate them to achieve the very best for their continent and themselves.

ZACR, he said, appeals to all Africans to take ownership of .africa, “because it truly belongs to us all.”

Chuks Egbune/GEE

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FG tinkers on ICT Development Bank

ITRealms:

The Federal Government is tinkering of setting up an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Development Bank, ITRealms exclusively reports.

The Minister of Communications, Barr. Adebayo Shittu made this disclosure in Lagos at the 3^rd Edition of Indo-Africa ICT Expo holding for the first time in Nigeria.

According to him, the Ministry of Communications is promoting the established of an ICT Development Bank in Nigeria.

Shittu explained that the bank will assist in providing the needed funding for the ICT industry instead of depending on commercial banks which charges high interest rate.

As Government, Shittu said, they recognize research as a key component in stimulating sustainable ICT growth.

“In this direction, the Ministry in pursuance of its mandate of leveraging ICT in its entire ramifications and in order to promote local manpower of the ICT sector, is establishing a proposed ICT University of Nigeria with specialized programme on ICT across the six geopolitical zones in the country,” he said.

Further, he said, the Ministry has reached out to a number of ICT companies locally and internationally for the Public, Private Partnership (PPP) management of the proposed ICT University. Many have and still counting who have expressed enthusiasm towards investing in the project.

The Ministry, he said, has reached an advance stage for the establishment of a befitting ICT Park and Exhibition center in Abuja.

“This is to develop Nigeria’s ICT sector towards achieving a Smart Digital Nigeria,” the Minister submitted.

Chuks Egbune/GEE

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Secrets of Buhari’s work that reversed recession

ITRealms:

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has revealed the secrets of the Buhari Administration in reportedly working its way out of the recession as proclaimed recently, reports ITRealms.

Speaking at the 4th Annual Conference of the Association of Communication Scholars and Professionals of Nigeria (ACSPN) in Kano on Wednesday, Lai Mohammed, noting that nothing in pulling Nigeria out of recession, was by accident.

"Taking Nigeria out of recession did not happen by accident. It is the culmination of months of hard work by the Administration and fidelity to its well-articulated economic policies, especially the Strategic Implementation Economic Recovery (2016) and the Growth Plan (ERGP) that was launched on 5th April, 2017," he said.

Alhaji Mohammed listed some of the ''incrementally-positive steps'' that got Nigeria out of recession as including the reversal of the consistent slowdown since 20014 to a level where the GDP finally grew by 0.55% in the second quarter of 2017

''This positive growth is attributable to both the oil and non-oil sectors of the economy. Growth in the oil sector, which has been negative since Q4 2015, was positive in Q2 2017. It rose by 1.64% as compared to -15.60 in Q1 2017, an increase of up to 17 percentage points.

''The non-oil sector grew by 0.45% in Q2 2017, a second successive quarterly growth after growing 0.72% in Q1 2017. In particular, improvement in the non-oil sector was driven principally by strong growth in agriculture and solid minerals sector, and reversal in the previous contraction of the manufacturing and construction sector. This shows that the government's economic diversification programme is working,'' he said.

The Minister listed other positive developments as a fall in the inflation rate from 18% to 16% as of July 2017; the rise in exports, coupled with a decrease in imports, which brought the country’s trade balance to ₦719.4 billion, up from ₦671.3 billion; increase in capital inflow that brought the total value of capital imported into Nigeria in the second quarter of 2017 to $1,792.3 million, representing a growth of 95.02 percent; increase in foreign reserves to a 30-month high of $31.8 billion in July 2017; and appreciation in exchange rate from N520/$ as at 20 February 2017 to N362/$ as at 17th August 2017.

He also listed some of the various impactful programmes of the Administration as including the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme, which today feeds 3,065,000 pupils in 14 states of the Federation pupils and has employed 36,000 Cooks across the country; the Conditional Cash Transfer that has seen about over 30,000 households benefit from the N5,000 monthly stipend; the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme under which about 120,000 people have benefited from the cooperative loans; and the N-power that has employed 200,000 people.

He said the high food prices are being addressed with appropriate monetary, fiscal and trade policies, as stated in the ERGP.

Alhaji Mohammed reiterated his earlier statement that the purveyors of hate speech, fake news and disinformation are working hard to obliterate the glaring achievements of the Administration.

''To naysayers, these positive developments do not constitute news. That's why they make up their own fake news, and engage in disinformation and hate speech. They believe that by seeking to overwhelm the polity with fake news, disinformation and hate speech, they can easily obliterate the glaring achievements of the Buhari Administration. We must not allow them to dominate the media space,'' he said

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How to overcome your smartphone addiction

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We are living in an increasingly mobile-connected age. From a tool whose greatest utility was once tied around making calls and sending short messages, mobile phones have become indispensable gadgets that play multi-faceted roles including computing, banking, online shopping, virtual assistant, fitness coach, personal physician, news source, compass and virtually our window on the increasingly fast-paced world.

According to the Research and Development Unit of Yudala, Nigeria’s pioneer online and offline e-commerce outfit, the growing utility is admittedly related to the rise and penetration of the smartphone: pocket-sized mobile devices, some of which have the capabilities to out-perform even some PC laptops.

The foregoing has seen a growing dependence on smartphones for a variety of tasks. Indeed, a significant majority of users polled in a recent survey revealed that their first action on waking up was to reach for their smartphone. Another research study on smartphone use found that over 90 per cent of respondents admitted to being phone junkies, claiming a sense of loss/disorientation or a feeling of being cut off from the world when without their smartphones.

Usage patterns indicate a growing addiction to smartphone among various classes and demographics of consumers. Interestingly, this is not only limited to millennials as research indicates that many in the older generation display similar patterns. The reality of smartphone addiction is now a major concern, especially in view of its debilitating effects on work, health and human relationships.

If you are caught in the web of smartphone addiction, the following tips from Yudala will help you break the habit:

1.Turn off instant notifications: You are in the middle of a crushing schedule at work, with deadlines looming. Suddenly, your phone buzzes! Immediately, your attention switches to the device to see who has hit you up on WhatsApp, commented on your latest Facebook post, retweeted that tweet or liked your picture on Instagram. Instant notification is one of the features of the smartphone that has contributed to getting a lot of people hooked on their devices. Good news is that, you can break that cycle by tweaking your settings to turn off push notifications for the various apps on your smartphone, especially the distracting ones from social media. 

While this may make you a bit late to social media activity, the overall benefits are immense as you will gradually regain control from the tendency to check your device each time it buzzes. For other apps such as emails, you can choose to manually check once every hour or even turn on the notifications when out of the office so you don’t miss out on important correspondence.

2.Use your smartphone less (with some help from apps): This is actually possible. By setting particular times in the day when you can use your device and sticking to these religiously, you can gradually begin to ease the heavy usage of the smartphone which often results in dependence and addiction. It is common to see individuals in a social gathering actually devoting more time to their smartphones, thereby defeating the aim of the meet-up. 

As a rule, the smartphone must be kept far away from you during meetings, social gatherings or when having your meals. Interestingly, there are a number of apps that can help limit your smartphone use. Flipd, Moment and BreakFree are three very good examples. These can be installed and set up to gauge and help you control your smartphone use.

3.Uninstall unnecessary apps: If you fall into the category of app-happy smartphone users, you stand a better chance of kicking that smartphone addiction by uninstalling the unnecessary apps on your device. Rather than being app-happy (always in a hurry to download any new app you come across), the right mindset to smartphone use is to be app-smart. 

This way, you weigh the benefits and utility of each app and even check out the reviews before you download and install them on your device. Take the time to go through the tons of apps on your smartphone and decide which ones are serving duplicated roles or those that are actually enslaving you to the device. An app that notifies you of new comments on social media, for instance, may be one of those to let go of. 

By reducing the number of apps, you are taking a strong step to overcome the addiction to your smartphone. Not only that, interruptions are reduced, fewer notifications distract you and you also free up the storage space on your device for more constructive use.

4.Turn off your device an hour before going to bed: For most people, this is a seemingly impossible task. The sad reality is that many smartphone addicts fall into the class of those who can be found using their smartphone until sleep comes, often far beyond the normal hours. 

It is hardly surprising, therefore, that there is a strong correlation between this particular improper use of the smartphone and a host of sleeping orders including, but not limited to, snoring, sleep apnea, insomnia, sleep deprivation and restless legs syndrome. 

In addition, the eyes come under excessive strain when you peer at the harsh glare of a smartphone screen for hours in a darkened room. It is advisable to switch off the phone at least an hour before going to sleep. In addition to helping you sleep better, the extra hour before bed can be put to better use through meditation, reflecting on the day’s activity, writing down your accomplishments for the day, reading a book (paper copy), communicating with your partner/spending time with your family, which is a very important part of bonding.

5.Keep the phone away: A common observation among smartphone addicts is their tendency to always keep their devices within reach. One of the ways of beating this particular habit is to put some distance, physical or virtual, between you and your smartphone. When at work, you can have the device locked up in a drawer with set times for checking it. 

The same practice can apply at home, especially when spending time with family or friends. Complicated or multiple passwords or screen locks could also come in handy in preventing you from constant use of the device. Reviewing your smartphone use patterns can also be a good way of achieving this.  

Keeping the phone locked up in another room, for instance, can help you break the habit of immediately reaching for it upon waking up in the morning. Same goes for the ability to hold back from posting a picture on social media immediately it is taken. Control and self-discipline is key.

6.Switch to a feature phone for a while: To break your smartphone addiction, you may need to take a radical step by switching to a feature phone for a while. While the prospects seem unbearable, you may discover that the decision could eventually help you regain your life, enrich your relationships and may not be such an uncomfortable experience after all.  For a start, you can use a feature phone for a month before switching back to a smartphone once certain you are in better control of the addiction. The experience may turn out to be a life-changing one…

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Nokia sets operators on ultra-5G path

ITRealms:

Finland-based Nokia has extended its comprehensive portfolio of ultra-broadband product and technology solutions to give operators new flexibility to meet consumer demand and enhance mobile network performance as they evolve towards Fifth Generation (5G) networks reports ITRealms.

As mobile broadband traffic continues to grow, operators want to enhance network performance where they see the greatest demand - with first deployments traditionally in busy city centers. More capacity, higher speeds and varying network latency are needed to meet the needs of individuals, businesses and IoT, as well as to ensure a smooth transition to 5G. As such, Nokia has defined a sustainable network evolution path that will allow operators to leverage existing investments and maximize assets such as spectrum, to implement higher performance where and when it is needed in the network.

To do this, Nokia is adding to the Nokia AirScale Remote Radio Head portfolio, enabling operators to increase peak performance and cell capacity while reducing space requirements at cell sites via new dual- and single-band FDD-LTE and TD-LTE radios. These leverage carrier aggregation techniques, 4x4 MIMO and 8x4 Beamforming, while addressing demand for higher output power, extending frequency band support and simplifying network rollouts.

To augment heterogeneous network deployments and boost coverage and capacity in the busiest hotspots - especially in dense urban environments - operators will need to deploy the next wave of small cells. The Nokia Ultra Dense self-organizing network features on Flexi Zone small cells will simplify these deployments, solving issues caused by reducing the distance between new and existing small cells and ensuring continuous optimization even as further densification occurs. Nokia has extended the self-organizing network features on its Femtocell portfolio to ensure smoother integration and higher performance in heterogeneous networks as traffic is offloaded from the macro network.

New features on the industry-first Nokia Flexi Zone Citizen Band Radio Service small cells, supporting Spectrum Access Server and Citizen Broadband Radio Service Device Proxy connectivity, will offer operators new options for boosting coverage and capacity, particularly inside buildings. CBRS Flexi Zone small cells can be used to deploy neutral host capabilities, allowing operators to lease capacity to other providers inside malls, hotels and office blocks, where space is at a premium. In compliance with FCC requirements, small cells will be able to efficiently communicate with the Spectrum Access Server to ensure the network uses only available shared CBRS* spectrum.

To provide backhaul flexibility for ultra-dense heterogeneous city networks - where microwave transport is used to link small cells to fiber access points - Nokia Wavence microwave now supports Carrier SDN. Operators will benefit from new intelligence and automation, including rapid power-up of virtual network functions and adaptable parameters to support changes on the radio access network, such as when people move from work to home.

Anchoring this multi-technology access is the Nokia Cloud Packet Core. Its cloud-native capabilities and operations deliver the performance to support increasing capacity, massive scalability required for densification, and deployment flexibility necessary to deliver low latency, in order to realize the economics of delivering diverse and demanding services and applications.

Nokia continues to help operators plan and optimize their path to 5G using its 5G Acceleration Services and is now expanding the portfolio to include the operator 'anyhaul' end-to-end transport network. Nokia will work with operators to assess the readiness of the network and design and implement their 5G strategies and services.

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