AfIGF’24: Stop Internet shut downs, PIN boss advises African government - ITREALMS

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The 54 members of the African Union governments have been advised to stop shutting down the Internet due to its attendant havoc and demerits, reports ITREALMS.

The Executive Director, Paradigm Initiative, Mr. Gbenga Sesan, gave this advice at the just concluded 2024 African Internet Governance Forum (AfIGF) during a high-level session held at African Hall, UNCC- ECA, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, while speaking on the theme: "Building our Multistakeholder Digital Future for Africa."

Nigerians data not compromised says NIMC, advises against giving data to phishing websites - ITREALMS

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The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has debunked media reports on the alleged exposure of sensitive data of Nigerian citizens as it concerns the Commission amongst many other data-collecting agencies, reports ITREALMS.

A civil society organisation, Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN) had a few days ago alleged that some Nigerians sensitive data are up for purchase at N100 on some websites across the world wide web.

2024 Elections: Paradigm advices govts to safeguard free expression online - ITREALMS

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In commemoration of World Day Against Cyber Censorship, Paradigm Initiative urges governments in the Global South that will hold elections to safeguard human rights online by promoting free expression and access to information during the elections.

This call comes against the backdrop of digital rights violations that are witnessed in several countries.

Fashion designer, Wells, peeps into 2024, advises FG on exchange rate - ITREALMS

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A Port Harcourt-based fashion designer, Angela Wells has said that she was optimistic 2024 would be a good year for business even as she admonished the federal government to redouble efforts to ensure exchange rate stability, reports ITREALMS.

Speaking to ITREALMS on the sideline of her annual event tagged "Shop and Chop" in Port Harcourt the Rivers State capital recently, Wells maintained that 2023 was a turbulent year for business stressing that it was by the grace of God that many businesses survived.

ICT R&D: Maida advises Nokia to invest in Nigeria - ITREALMS

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The Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (EVC/CEO) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Aminu Maida, has advised Nokia Networks to increase its investments in Research and Development (R&D) to support the growth of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Nigeria, reports ITREALMS.

Receiving a delegation from Nokia Networks of Finland led by the Deputy Minister, Under-Secretary of State for International Trade from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, Jarno Syrjala, who visited the Commission, Maida used the opportunity to advise the mobile phone company to explore further opportunities for mutually-beneficial relationships.

Odeh advises CSOs on navigating grant landscape in Nigeria - ITREALMS

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The Country Director, Accountability Lab Nigeria, Mr. Odeh Friday Odeh has outlined steps to effectively navigate grant landscape by civil society organisations (CSOs) in Nigeria, reports ITREALMS.

Speaking at the Peer Learning Session organised by the Open Alliance Nigeria, where he dwelt on “Navigating the Grant Landscape in Nigeria: Grant sources, Grant Access & Resource Mobilization.”

ITREALMS boss, Remmy Nweke advises online publishers on need for web strategy - ITREALMS

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The Group Executive Editor (GEE) of ITREALMS Media group, Mr. Remmy Nweke has tasked online publishers in Nigeria, to have operational web analytical strategy to grow their businesses.

Speaking at the pre-conference business session of the 2023 annual conference of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) held at the Abuja Continental Hotel on Wednesday, Nweke said that by developing web analytical strategy, mediapreneurs under GOCOP will be propelling their websites for healthy growth.

Val Cakes boss, Folasade, advises entrepreneurs to separate friendship, family from businesses - ITREALMS

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The Creative Director, Val Cakes 'N' Events Affairs, Oshogbo, Folasade Makinde, spoke to ITREALMS’ GBEMI OMOTOSO on a number of industry issues, advising entrepreneurs to always separate friendship and family from businesses, in addition to making Google her friend.

What prompted your entry into the cake industry?
This was ignited by my passion from childhood. I developed passion for baking when I was little, then I used to go to weddings organized everyday at the church located behind our house.

Fondant guru, Abimbola advises startups to develop healthy competition - ITREALMS

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Fondant guru and Chief Executive Officer of BbRoyale Confectionery, Lagos, Abimbola Babalola, told ITREALMS' GBEMI OMOTOSO that baking industry begets lots of talents and full of creativity, advising startup to develop healthy competition.

Excerpts:

What prompts you into the cake industry?

My passion and love for edibles 'no be from here.'

Olawunmi of Wumat Cakes advises practitioners to always upgrade knowledge - ITREALMS

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Aremu Olawunmi, Chief Executive of Wumat Cakes and Events Ikorodu, Lagos State, is a passionate cake maker. She spoke with ITREALMS’ GBEMI OMOTOSO, advising practitioners to always upgrade their knowledge.

 Excerpts:

What brought you into cake industry?
Smiles...Passion! I developed passion for Cake making right from my secondary school days.

Insecurity: Makinde advises stakeholders to employ more tactical approach - ITREALMS

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The Oyo State Governor, ‘Seyi Makinde, has called on relevant stakeholders in the country to employ a more tactical approach in combating the insecurity challenges facing the nation.

The governor, who made the position public at an expanded security council meeting held at the House of Chiefs, Secretariat, Agodi, Ibadan, said that security operatives must work on response time during emergencies.

Buttercream queen, Temitayo Ajayi advises 'determination, commitment are ways to excel' - ITREALMS

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Buttercream Queen and Director of TYlicious Cakes and Events, Lagos, Temitayo Ajayi  told GBEMI OMOTOSO that with determination and commitment, exceling is assured.

Excerpts:

How did you coined your brand name?

I just picked ideas from around and added my initial "Ty".

Yorubaland: Lawson advises South-West Governors to unite against insecurity - ITREALMS

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The Iyalode of Yorubaland, Iyalode Alaba Lawson has passionately called on South-West Governors on need to proactively rise up to security challenges confronting the region, noting that the recent attack on congregants at church in Owo, Ondo State, was an insult to God and a slap on the entire Yoruba race.

Lawson made the appeal in reaction to the recent killing of worshippers at St Francis Catholic Church in the town, stressing that the sad incident should be seen as a wake up to all Odua sons and daughters, irrespective of their religions to be united.

Type-approved mobile devices: NCC advises consumers - ITREALMS

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The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has advised telecommunications consumers to verify their desired mobile devices to ascertain if they are type-approved before purchase is made, reports ITREALMS.

Director of Technical Standard and Network Integrity, Engr. Bako Wakil, gave this advice on Monday in a video chat, saying that telecom consumers could make this confirmation on NCC’s website before completing payment for a transaction.

COVID-19: Atiku advises African leaders to redesign budget, reduce governance cost - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

The former Vice President of Nigeria, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has advised African leaders to reduce governance expenditure which is too high, if the continent must mitigate the effects of ravaging Chinese Virus-19 also known as Coronavirus or COVID-19, reports ITREALMS.

Atiku in a public statement available to ITREALMS, said that Africa is on a crossroads and her leaders cannot afford to be indifferent to the needs of the populace.

He also called on African nations to rebudget, reassign and reduce expenditure with Nigeria on the lead. Pointing out that Nigeria need to think and act her way into taking the right path.

“History will forgive us if we make the wrong decisions, but it certainly will not forgive us if we take no decisions in the misguided belief that others will save us. If Nigeria does not save herself in this season of a global emergency, we may find that a new world order will emerge and we will no longer be the Giant of Africa. We may not even be the Giant of West Africa if we do not take decisive action.

For him, Nigeria, for instance, cannot be considered a serious nation when her leaders refused to cut down on profligacy and instead seek outside help to fund inefficiencies.

We cannot be considered a serious country when we refuse to cut down on profligacy and instead seek outside help to fund our inefficiencies.

“Even in our own individual houses, when things get tight, the first thing we should do is cut down on unnecessary expenditure and then you look for creative ways to generate funds and develop our household economy, before we even seek outside funding,” he said.

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ChineseVirus-19: Oyeyemi shuts license centres nationwide, advises on use of online by-pass - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

Following the lockdown directive by President Muhammadu Buhari on the Chinese Virus-19 also known as COVID-19 pandemic on Sun 29 March, 2020, the Corps Marshal, Federal Road Safety Corps, Dr Boboye Oyeyemi has ordered the shutdown of Driver's License database in Abuja with immediate effect, reports ITREALMS.

This, he said was in line with the President’s directives to lockdown, stressing that expectedly, the Drivers License Centres will not be able to process licenses for applicants nationwide.

"However, applicants can go via the by-pass mode to process for the license to be delivered after the lockdown period," says the Corps Public Education Officer, Bisi Kazeem, in a press statement available to ITREALMS.

He also revealed that the shutdown is aimed at sustaining existing endeavours already in place by the Federal Government to curtail further spread of the menace.

Kazeem quoted the Corps Marshal as saying that in the wake of the pandemic all DLCs should maintain maximum hygiene through provision of adequate water, soap and alcohol-based sanitizers at the Centres. ITREALMS recalls that the Corps Marshal had earlier advised applicants to avoid physical capture at this critical moment when the world is battling a common enemy (COVID-19), and explore the BY-PASS option which is the online processing of the National Drivers License without physical presence of the applicant at the DLCs.

It is therefore to be noted that the By-Pass option is applicable only to applicants who intend to renew their licenses not fresh applicants. This is hereby reiterated as part of the Corps’ concerted efforts to curb the spread of the global health challenge.




Accordingly, Kazeem added that the closure of the DLCs will not affect the Operational formations of the Corps as Operatives have been deployed to render required essential services in collaboration with other security and intelligence agencies at all levels to enforce both the Presidential and State Government's directives on restriction of movement and sit at home among others.




To this end, the Corps Marshal has notified the Chairman and Secretary of the Joint Tax Board about the effect of the temporary shutdown of the DLCs nationwide.




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Ikwuemesi advises youths to manage careers beyond degrees - ITREALMS

ITREALMS: 

The Director, Kendor Consulting, Mrs. Adora Ikwuemesi, has advised Nigerian youths especially undergraduates and fresh graduates to carefully build their careers beyond the certificates that they have acquired, reports ITREALMS,

Mrs. Ikwuemesi disclosed this at the 2019 Candle Career Conference themed: “Out of the Ordinary: The bedrock of an extraordinary career.” which held recently at the Civic Towers, Victoria Island, Lagos.

While delivering her presentation on “Understanding your career trajectory: Beyond a degree,” She shared lessons from her journey in pursuing her career.

The Kendor Consulting boss further stressed on the importance for undergraduates and fresh graduates to have a vision while choosing a career path as that was the only way to gain clarity on their careers.

According to her, “An extraordinary career requires an extraordinary investment. This is a key way to develop one’s self and remain valuable to any employer.”

Speaking in the same vein, Mr. Orimolade Oluwamuyemi, Regional Marketing and Communications Coordinator – MEA Philanthropies at Microsoft Nigeria pointed out that undergraduates and fresh graduates should be open to learning and unlearning.

Mr. Oluwamuyemi who spoke on the topic: “Key patterns of an extraordinary career” encouraged participants at the conference to always be ready to embrace change adding that “we are in a changing world.”

The event also featured other speakers in a panel session such as: Mr. Tochukwu Egesi, CEO, Innovation Corner; Mr. Samuel Akinlotan, Talent Acquisition Partner, Sterling Bank Plc and Miss. Ajoke Emekene, a Management Consultant.

A major highlight of the event was the presentation of gifts to some of the participants at the conference.

The Candle Career is founded as an employability and career hub called to tackle unemployment in Nigeria. The community is focused on up-skilling and increasing the pathways to success of undergraduates and fresh graduates to thrive wherever they find themselves.

Uj. N. Dominic/Editor

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PDP advises Tanko to quit the Bench now - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has noted the illegal swearing in of members of the election petitions tribunal judges by Justice Mohammed Tanko and surmised that his action was a complete nullity, reports ITREALMS.

Kola Ologbondiyans, the National Publicity Secretary and Director, Media & Publicity
PDP Presidential Campaign Organization,The PDP insists that in the face of our law, Justice Tanko cannot function as a Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), as there is no vacancy in that office since the 1999 Constitution (as amended) has no provision for two Chief Justices of Nigeria at any particular time.  Justice Walter Onnoghen is still in charge as the Chief Justice of Nigeria.

The PDP therefore charges Justice Tanko to note that he is allowing himself to be used by despotic forces in their bid to truncate our hard-earned democracy.

It is also imperative for Justice Tanko to agree that, having allowed himself to be used to desecrate the hallowed temple of justice, his oath of office and oath of allegiance, the only option left for him is to quit the bench.

The PDP reminds Justice Tanko of his membership of the panel set up by the National Judicial Council (NJC), which on March 14, 2018, forced Justice Obisike Orji to quit the bench and go on a compulsory retirement, for allowing himself to be sworn in as the Acting Chief Judge of Abia State without the statutory recommendation of the NJC.

From Justice Tanko’s first illegal assignment, which is the swearing-in of election tribunal Justices for the forthcoming elections, Nigerians can now see the raison d’etre for his illegal appointment. This action is in itself a nullity and we caution the said justices to be reminded of the popular maxim that something cannot be built on nothing. 

Nigerians can recall that the PDP had always alerted that President Buhari is bent on removing Justice Onnoghen so as to replace him with a pliable CJN that would help him uphold his rigging plots and achieve his self-succession bid, having realized that he cannot win in any free and fair electoral contest.

The PDP invites the world to note that when Nigerians were in the trenches for this democracy, General Muhammadu Buhari, as he was then known, was in cahoots with the last dictator against the will the people. It is therefore not strange that today, President Buhari, once again, wants to subdue our democracy and subvert the rule of law.
  
However, the PDP wants President Buhari to know that Nigerians, irrespective of tribe, creed or political leaning, will never allow anybody, no matter how highly placed, to push our nation to the abyss of anarchy.

Ayo Midele/Editor

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@LSE: Nwankwo advises African countries on economic transformation via debt financing

ITREALMS:

The immediate past Director General of the Debt Management Office (DMO) in Nigeria, Dr Abraham Nwankwo, has admonished African leaders to initiate robust macroeconomic, transformation plans to drive debt-financed sustainable economic growth and prosperity, reports ITRealms.

Speaking on the topic “Sapping Africa’s Debt Financing Strategy: Removing Some Mental Cobwebs”, at the Fourth London Stock Exchange LSEG Africa Advisory Group (LAAG) Meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, Nwankwo said such a transformation plan is needed as a formal policy document, “narrating how debt financing will be applied to launch economy unto a trajectory of self-sustaining prosperity; with credible macroeconomic figures at the beginning, intermediate and concluding stages: GDP figures, inflation, interest rates, exchange rates, reserve position, etc.”

Nwankwo, who holds a PhD in economics, said Debt Financing, particularly external debt financing from the international capital market, appears to be the most predictable source for financing and refinancing Africa’s economic and social transformation over the next decade.

However, he stated that the real job for governments, particularly officials in charge of planning, finance and central banking is “to demonstrate with detailed credible macroeconomic plan, how this prospect can be safely actualized.”

He stressed that many African countries have failed to initiate credible transformation plan thereby squandering the opportunity to grow their economies through debt financing. “The government may be keen on debt financing but lazy to articulate a credible implementation plan, with macroeconomic deliverables, around debt financing.”

Added to this intellectual laziness on the part of economic planners is also what he called the “Rigid, non-imaginative advice from the IMF in particular, which encourages policy timidity, instead of planned boldness.”

He said the IMF usually relies on past and present deficiencies to preach against the possibility of future progress instead of focusing on how to cage or degrade those deficiencies to create a new trajectory of efficiency and prosperity.

He said: “Much of IMF advice on Africa’s debt financing misleads countries to commit what I first referred to in a 2017 publication as the “sin-of-avoiding-a-sin’(SAS)”

He further stressed that African countries would continue to rely on debt financing from the international capital market due to acute fiscal constraints, huge infrastructure deficit and huge reserves of exploitable opportunities in agriculture and agro-processing, manufacturing, solid minerals, tourism and other sectors.

Uboshe Uboshe/GEE

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Insecurity: Ekhomu advises traditional rulers to protect communities

ITREALMS:

Renowned security expert, Dr. Ona Ekhomu has advised traditional rulers to provide effective leadership in the security of their domains, as a way of fulfilling their part of the social contract with their subjects, reports ITRealms.

He also said that exercising purposeful leadership in security management of their respective communities will enhance the legitimacy of the traditional rulership institution and contribute to national security.

Speaking at the national conference on “Culture, Peace and National Security: The Role of Traditional Rulers” organized by the National Institute for Cultural Orientation in Ibadan on 30^th January 2018, Ekhomu, providing a roadmap for security in Nigerian communities captioned “A-Z of the Role of Traditional Rulers in Security Management”, urged traditional rulers to take ownership of the security management of their domains.

He told them to harness the critical resources available including law enforcement, military, youth age grades, prominent citizens from the area, etc. in the security architecture of the community. “The missing link is leadership – which the traditional ruler can provide”, he added.

Dr. Ekhomu, who is the President of the Association of Industrial Security and Safety Operators of Nigeria (AISSON) urged the rulers to embrace and support law enforcement authorities in their communities by building and donating police posts where possible.

He further advised traditional rulers in rural communities to support public security personnel by providing foodstuffs, rent-free housing and farm lands for subsistence farming.

“Traditional rulers should establish liaison with security agencies as a way of creating force multiplication in the community,” he said.

On intelligence gathering, Ekhomu tasked rulers to engage in information gathering and escalation to the authorities for action. The expert said that if information provided to the public authorities is neglected and a security breach occurs, the ruler can then take the authorities to task, so that information supplied to the authorities in future will be acted upon.

“Traditional rulers must use their influential and privileged positions to forge a symbiotic relationship between the security agencies and his subjects”, he added.

He urged the royal fathers to undergo training in security awareness so they can pass on such information to their subjects – using the town crier where necessary.

On the tactical level, Ekhomu urged rulers to conduct demographic mapping in order to keep a record of ex-service personnel in their domains. He urged the formation of Threat Assessment Teams (TAT) “that may enable your community analyze imminent threats and how to respond to them”.

He advised royal fathers to maintain a record of security incidents in their communities to enable them conduct probability analysis of the occurrence of loss events, and produce reports for the political elites.

Ekhomu urged rulers to name and shame families of confirmed armed robbers, kidnappers, cultists. He praised Obosi town in Anambra State where the traditional ruler determined that violent criminals who are killed will not be given proper burial.

Ayo Midele/GEE

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