Dangote buys 12m barrels of crude oil from United States for refinery operations - ITREALMS

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The Dangote Petroleum Refinery has advanced plans to buy some 12 million barrels of crude oil from the United States, reports ITREALMS.

The refinery resorted to crude importation as local supply challenges hindered the new $20bn refinery’s push to reach full refining capacity.

U.S. Commercial Service hosts NUSA event, honors Nigerians - ITREALMS

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The United States (U.S.) Commercial Service Nigeria, led by the Commercial Counselor, Julie LeBlanc and Commercial Attaché Blake Murray, hosted over 450 Nigerian companies for the Networking with the USA (NUSA) Awards and Business Networking Event at the Civic Center in Lagos, reports ITREALMS.

The NUSA Appreciation Event is organized to honor Nigerian business owners who promote U.S. products and services and who have contributed significantly to the achievement of the goals and objectives of the U.S. Commercial Service in Nigeria - expansion of trade and investment between the United States and Nigeria.

'PDP letter to United Nations, preposterous'

ITREALMS:

The Senior Special Assistant to President, Media & Publicity, Mr. Garba Shehu has described the recent letter by the National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Mr. Uche Secondus to the United Nations Secretary General accusing President Muhammadu Buhari of several allegations, as preposterous, reports ITRealms.

He also said the letter confirms the opposition party as a bad loser, desperate for another chance after they were kicked out for failing the nation and its people.

Reacting to the letter, Shehu said its “no less preposterous and comical,” for the opposition to accuse the Nigerian government of “destroying Nigeria’s democracy.”

Lamenting what he also called “PDP’s lecture on democracy and the rule of law” coming from a party with a tradition of undemocratic rule is a desperate attempt to pervert history and the course of justice. The sermon, is both trite and hollow, coming from a party with intolerance for dissent as its hallmark. A party that humiliated opposition parties and stunted their growth. This was the atmosphere that nurtured the birth of the All Progressives Congress (APC.)

The war against corruption, for which many more politicians may soon be docked, cannot be misrepresented as an attack on human rights and Mr. Secondus should not try to mislead the UN. 

"Nigerian politicians at all levels have been used to dispensing with state funds in whatever manner they please, and to have someone, an administration, finally saying, “No. It doesn’t matter how big or important you think you are; the law must come against you...” That is not something they are used to at all. For the PDP, as has now emerged, national security was the major source of their funding," he said.

Uboshe Uboshe/GEE

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Nigeria @57: Let’s remain united says Senator Tinubu

ITRealms:

The Senator representing Lagos Central Senatorial District, Mrs Oluremi Tinubu has urged Nigerians to continue on the path of unity and eschew all tendencies to break up the country, saying the country has set its hands on the plough and cannot give up now, reports ITRealms.

Tinubu in a commemorate statement made available to ITRealms on Nigeria’s 57^th independence, she said in spite of the conflicts and rifts including a 30-month civil war that have plagued Nigeria, the country elected to remain as one.

“We must continue on the path of oneness, putting national interests above ethnicity and self.  We have set our hands on the plough; we cannot at this moment, give up. Thus, we must shun all attempts to cause disunity amongst us,” Tinubu said, stressing that never again should Nigeria as a nation go through conflict like was during the civil war, insisting that the odds are too huge.

The statement entitled “Nigeria @57: One People”, Senator Tinubu said: “I celebrate with Nigerians at home and in the Diaspora on the occasion of our Great Nation's fifty seventh (57th) independence anniversary. This day fifty seven (57) years ago, we received liberation from colonial rule, deciding like other Nations that self-governance is the way forward.

“In the years since then, we have dabbled in military rule, unitary system and now, democratic governance. We have had seasons of plenty as marked by the oil boom, and we have experienced lean years. We have also been besieged with a civil war, ethnic conflicts, and rifts; and we have enjoyed relative peace as a nation.

“Through it all and in spite of these, we have remained united and indivisible, pressing on to the Nigeria of our dreams. And for this, I must commend every Nigerian.

"We must however continue on the path of oneness, putting national interests above ethnicity and self. We have set our hands on the plough; we cannot at this moment, give up. 

"Thus, we must shun all attempts to cause disunity amongst us. Never again should we as a nation go through conflict like we did with the civil war. For us, the odds are too huge," she said.

Further, she wished all the good people of Lagos Central Senatorial District, Lagos State and all Nigerians a happy celebration at 57.

Ayo Midele/GEE.

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A nation united by corruption

Commentary@ITRealms:

One of the highlights of the year that has just ended was the release from a British jail of one of Nigeria's most notorious politically exposed persons (PEPs), James Onanefe Ibori. Ibori's rap sheet is as long as the 338km East-West Road in Nigeria's Niger Delta region, but the reason for his latest freedom was the conviction and sentencing—13 years in prison—by a Southwark Crown Court in April 2012 after he pleaded guilty to a 10-count charge of money laundering, corruption and conspiracy to defraud.

Of course, it wasn't Ibori's release that dominated the news, as newsy as his expected release was. Rather, it was his triumphant return to the warm embrace of his kinsmen, supporters and well-wishers. James Onanefe Ibori or James Onanefe Ochuko Ibori, depending on if you are appearing before the Supreme Court of Nigeria, is an enigma. 

He was governor of Delta State from 1999-2007. He and his bosom friend, Bukola Saraki, Nigeria's current senate president, bankrolled the political machine that led to the emergence of Umaru Musa Yar'Adua as president in 2007. And if not for providence—the death of Yar'Adua in May 2010—Ibori, who up until then was the de facto vice president of Nigeria, would have succeeded Yar'Adua.

Yar'Adua died and Nigeria dodged a bullet or so we thought! Ibori was subsequently jailed in 2012, two years after he was arrested—and extradited to the UK—by the Interpol in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, where he was hiding after fleeing Nigeria. Even in prison, he maintained his godfather role and from the public admission of one of his surrogates played a key role not only in the emergence of high-ranking public officers in Delta State but the leadership of the National Assembly. For the trajectory of the Ibori saga and persona, readers will find this piece, "The welcome party for Ibori" by Simon Kolawole, instructive.

Depending on where you come from, perhaps your political affiliation and how much you benefitted from the Ibori heist in Delta State, either directly or through a third party or even tangentially as a hanger-on, the celebratory Mass held in honour of Ibori's release from prison, though detestable, was quite understandable. After all, there is an Ibori in many of us. There are countless Iboris in the National Assembly, criminals making laws and posing as "distinguished senators" and "honourable members". 

There are Ibori's in various government houses across the country; scoundrels posing as executive governors. There are Iboris in the Army, Air Force, Navy, Customs, Immigration, Prisons, Police, our universities and sundry public institutions where those who have been kept in charge of what Peter Ekeh in his seminal essay, "Colonialism and the Two Publics in Africa: A Theoretical Statement", referred to as "civic public" conveniently and unconscionably steal from it and divert their loot to the "primordial public".

That is the sorry state of Nigeria. And it explains the Ibori conundrum. According to Ekeh, "A good citizen of the primordial public gives out and asks for nothing in return; a lucky citizen of the civic public gains from the civic public but enjoys escaping giving anything in return whenever he can. But such a lucky man would not be a good man were he to channel all his lucky gains to his private purse. He will only continue to be a good man if he channels part of the largesse from the civic public to the primordial public. That is the logic of the dialectics. The unwritten law of the dialectics is that it is legitimate to rob the civic public in order to strengthen the primordial public."

So, just as it is often the case where one person's freedom fighter is another person's militant, as a people, Nigerians seem not to be in agreement on what constitutes corruption or who a corrupt person is. What one Nigerian sees as corruption, another sees it as "blessing from God", their own opportunity or "turn to eat". The national cake is there for the taking. The state has abdicated its responsibilities—roads, water, school, health, sanitation, etc—and instinctively we have learned to "manage" by helping ourselves to as much as the national pottage, in the "civic public", as we can lay our hands on.

Take the ongoing spat between the current Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, and his predecessor, Solomon Arase, who has been accused of making away with over 20 police vehicles when he retired in June 2016. Arase didn't deny carting away police vehicles. He is just piqued that when it was his "turn to eat", the police authorities suddenly became amnesic. To show his righteous anger on an issue that has caused public discomfiture, Mr. Arase's reminded the all-righteous police authorities that there is nothing new in Inspectors General of Police making away with enough vehicles to open a car shop when they retire.

“I expect that former occupants of the office of the Inspector-General of Police should not be demeaned. This explains why Force Order 295 was emplaced by the force management under my leadership as acknowledged in your letter in reference," Arase wrote to his predecessor in his defence. "In spite of the emplacement of this order and despite the fact that my two immediate predecessors left office with 13 and nine vehicles of different makes and models respectively, I never pressurized either of them to return any of such vehicles neither did I engage in any act that was capable of bringing them to ridicule as being done to me of late by a force I dedicated my life to serving up to the highest level."

Clearly, pubic office in Nigeria is simply a sinecure and you would be eternally excoriated by your kinsmen and associates for not taking advantage of a life-changing opportunity.  As someone once reminded me, public office in Nigeria is like climbing a mighty tree with lots of fruit. Once you climb, you are required to get as much as you can because you may not have a second chance. So, we are all, ceaselessly, engaged in the race of getting a nibble at the cake. To appreciate the Ibori phenomenon, you must understand Nigeria. Here, the best private schools, including universities, are owned by those whose responsibility has included how to make our public schools functional. It is the same story for the health, transport, and indeed, every sector of the Nigerian society. 

It is as if Nigerians, wherever we find ourselves in the "civic public", are in a race for a medal on how best to pillage the country. The "Villa Repair Heist", as someone has described it, provides a fitting example of this brazen larceny that is called public service in Nigeria. The 2016 budget for repairs and rehabilitation of Nigeria's Presidential Villa, Aso Rock, was N642.5 million.

By 2017, the budget had shot up to N5.6 billion. "Was the Villa hit by a bomb or earthquake unbeknownst to us citizens?" "Was there a war akin to Aleppo in the place?" one commentator asked. No, there wasn't. It is simply "their time to eat." In the same budget, there is a provision of N2.3billion for the Defence Headquarters to clear backlog of electricity bills that is budgeted for every year.  

In July 2012, I was part of an audience at Chatham House, London, where an ex-governor of Niger State and Chair of the Northern States Governors Forum, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, was guest speaker. Dr. Aliyu spoke on "Nigeria’s Unity and Regional Socio-Political Groups: Influence and Impact of the Northern States Governors Forum (NSGF)." He noted that "corruption was the single unifying factor of the elite in Nigeria and that the way to deal with it was to reduce the focus on the centre." Aliyu is right in many ways. But it is not just the elite. It is about Nigeria. 

Today, if someone is robbed, we no longer get jolted. The refrain will be, "Thank God he is alive." "We praise God the robbers took his possession and spared his life." "God bless those robbers." It is the same response you get when kidnappers strike. We no longer bother to interrogate armed robbery, kidnapping and other vices that have become part of our national ethos.

The celebration of Ibori's return from prison, therefore, provides an opportunity to interrogate what Nigeria means to us as Nigerians. The problem is not really with Ibori or those who have elected to celebrate him. The problem is with Nigeria, a place where allegiance is to the "primordial public", where rulers live in mansions and religious centres luxuriate in splendor while public schools and hospitals wallow is squalor. 

*Chido Onumah is the author of We Are All Biafrans Contact him on conumah@hotmail.com; Follow him on Twitter: @conumah

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DSO: Lai Mohammed in Beijing, says African nations united on digital broadcasting

ITRealms:

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said that African nations have agreed to work together in their quest to successfully transit from Analogue to Digital broadcasting, reports ITRealms.

Speaking at the 6th African Digital TV Development Seminar in Beijing, China, on Thursday, the Minister said the decision to engage in shared experiences and synergy on a continental level was reached by the African Ministers in charge of Information and Communication, who attended the 3rd Forum on China-Africa Media Cooperation also in Beijing, which preceded the Seminar.

 

‘’It is indeed worrisome that so far, only two African nations have successfully transited to Digital broadcasting. Others are in various stages of transition. It is therefore imperative that we all work together to achieve our set goal.

‘’In this regard, let me formally announce that the African Ministers in charge of Information and Communication who are attending this Seminar have agreed on the need for all African nations to jointly face the transition challenge, with a view to enhancing their success in meeting the deadline. 

‘’I am happy to inform this audience that the Ministers held an exploratory meeting here in Beijing on Tuesday - on the sidelines of the 3rd Forum on China-Africa Media Cooperation - in furtherance of this agreement,’’ he said.

Alhaji Mohammed expressed gratitude to his fellow African Ministers for their ‘’Pan African solidarity’’, saying he had no doubt that working together on this digitalization process ‘’will not only improve our chances of achieving a successful transition, but will also open a new vista of cooperation in other areas, for the benefit of all our peoples’’.

He commended the organizers of the Seminar for continuing their tradition of providing a forum for advancing the cause of digital television development in Africa. 

The Minister said in spite of the challenges faced by Nigeria in its efforts to transit from Analogue to Digital broadcasting, the country is confident of meeting the June 2017 deadline to switch off Analogue broadcasting, especially as it has successfully launched the pilot phase.

‘’We are confident because we, as a government, have the political will to drive the transition process. Also, all the stakeholders have demonstrated uncommon passion, patriotism and dedication to the cause of digitalization,’’ he said.

 

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ITU celebrates 150th anniversary, sets May 17 as WTIS Day

ITRealms

International Telecommunication Union (ITU), in line with its role as the United Nations specialized agency for ICTs, celebrates its 150^th anniversary award on 17 May in Geneva, Switzerland, with the theme “Telecommunications and ICTs: drivers of innovation”, and sets to annually observed May 17 as World Telecommunication and Information Society (WTIS) Day, ITRealms reports.

ITRealms gathered that forward-looking movers and shakers in the ICT industry, like Bill Gates, Robert E. Kahn, Thomas Wiegand, Mark I. Krivocheev, Martin Cooper and Ken Sakamura amongst others, would be honoured by  will be honoured with ITU’s 150^th Anniversary Award. As well recognition will be accorded to ITU’s Founding Member States and to its long-standing industry members.

The event is also to feature Panel discussion on “ICT’s Driving a Sustainable Future” with Luis Von Ahn, CEO & founder, DuoLingo; Philip Walton, COO, BRCK; Jian Wang, CTO, Alibaba; Ulf Ewaldsson, CTO, Ericsson; and Gabriela Styf Sjöman, CTO, Telecom Italia Group.

ITU has been interwoven with landmark inventions and innovations in communications over the past 150 years. In the 1850s, soon after Samuel Morse started a service in the United States, ITRealms learnt that telegraph lines crossed national borders and new international agreements had to be forged.

On 17 May 1865, twenty nations gathered in Paris to sign an international framework and formed the International Telegraph Union; the signing of the International Telegraph Convention in Paris in 1865 today culminates into a memorable day, as ITU annually marks May 17 as World Telecommunication and Information Society Day.

Daniel Nsolibe/Ed, Ops.

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