Deepfakes: Next human vulnerability for businesses" Asks Ben Jacob - ITREALMS

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Synthetic audio and video generation technologies, known as deepfakes, have reached a critical threshold. Once mostly limited to social media entertainment or occasional political manipulation, they are now fully integrated tools in cyberattack tactics. This shift represents more than a technological evolution; it marks a transformation where human perception itself has become an attack surface. Recognizing a familiar voice or face is no longer a guarantee of authenticity.

In this context, businesses face a threat that relies less on raw technical skill and more on subtle manipulation of human behavior. Fraud campaigns now exploit cloned voices and manipulated videos to simulate authentic communications, deceiving even the most vigilant employees. 

Oko traditional prime minister, Ichie Ezeosim for burial next week - ITREALMS

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The Oko Community in Orumba North Local Government Area (LGA) of Anambra State has concluded arrangements for the burial and final rites of passage of its traditional Prime Minister, Onowu Oko, Ichie Martin Ezeosim, scheduled for Thursday, October 9, 2025, reports ITREALMS.

The passing of the late Onowu was jointly announced by His Royal Highness, Igwe Prof. Laz Ekwueme, Eze Ijikala II, and his cabinet; the Oko People’s Union (OPU); and the family of the deceased.

Financial Inclusion: SANEF’s Uche Uzoebo underscores AI as next frontier - ITREALMS

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Given the progress made in accelerating financial inclusion to unbanked and underbanked communities in Nigeria, the Shared Agent Network Expansion Facilities Limited (SANEF) has underscored Artificial Intelligence (AI) as the next step to advancement in financial services in the country, reports ITREALMS.

She made this assertion at the just concluded Payments Forum Nigeria (PAFON 2.0), Uche Uzoebo (Mrs.), MD/CEO, SANEF Limited, noted that as technology evolves rapidly within the financial ecosystem, Financial Inclusion must continue to be at the center of the nation’s progress.

Owu in Diaspora supports Olumide Ogunleye for next Oba of Akinale - ITREALMS

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Owu in Diaspora drum support for Olumide Ogunleye as next traditional ruler of Akinale the Obaship ambition of Prince Olumide Ogunleye to become next traditional ruler of Akinale town of Ewekoro local government area of Ogun State under Owu kingdom of Egbaland has received positive boost, as a group consisting of Owu indigenes in the Diaspora endorsed his candidature.

The group under the aegis of Omo Olowu Oduru in Diaspora gave the endorsement in a communique issued by the coordinator Engr Oluyemi Ogundele from Vienna, Austria.

Final funeral rites for Lolo Esther Okoye, Ms Juliet Okoye comes up in April 2025 - ITREALMS

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The family of late Lolo Esther Ekemma Okoye (Arubaluezeama nee Agwuemeka), aged 93years and Miss Juliet Chiamaka Okoye, aged 31, has announced their final funeral rites, reports ITREALMS.

Elder George M. Okoye (Asiliasonyeukwu Isuaniocha) disclosed this on behalf of the family.

BREAKING NEWS! ICANN board names Lindqvist, next President/CEO - ITREALMS

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The Board of Directors of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has named Kurt Erik “Kurtis” Lindqvist as the incoming ICANN President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), reports ITREALMS.

Disclosing this at the Terrace of Kigali Convention Centre on Monday evening, the Chair, ICANN Board of Directors, Tripti Sinha, said Lindqvist will officially assume the role on December 5, 2024.

Gavi names Senator Nishtar next Chief Executive Officer - ITREALMS

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The board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance has approved the appointment of Dr Sania Nishtar as its next Chief Executive Officer (CEO), reports ITREALMS.

Dr Nishtar, ITREALMS gathered, is currently a member of the Pakistan Senate, will assume the role on 18 March 2024.

May 29th: Where Next Nigeria? Asks Tim Akano - ITREALMS

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Now, Nigeria is without form and void. Darkness covers the face of the deep and the unquiet Spirit is hovering over the land. Africa’s most populous country is at a fresh dangerous crossroads. At the beginning when darkness covered the earth, God said: ‘’Let there be Light,’’ and there was light. Now, Nigeria needs a leader who will command light to outshine the country's darkness and exorcise the unquiet spirit. Once a country returns to factory-reset mode or Hobbes's state of nature: Optimism, Peace and Hope disappear, none of our important human needs is reliably realizable in such a milieu.

Indeed, the perfect storm is already gathering, killer herdsmen have since cut short their vacation, they visited an IDP camp in Benue state and massacred over 128 internally displaced people mostly pregnant women and children recently, before zooming off to Sokoto, they had a stopover in Kaduna where reckless kidnapping and killings took place. The DSS came out publicly to declare that the State of the Union is fragile as some VIPs are scheming for something strange to the constitution, threatening that the price of holding the May 29th change of baton event amounts to the death of democracy! 

Adamu to Tinubu: Get ready to be next President - ITREALMS

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The National Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Abdullahi Adamu has told Asíwájú Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to get ready to assume the presidency of Nigeria, from 29 May 2023.

Adamu, who spoke emphatically at the Town Hall meeting Thursday in Lafia between the APC candidate and stakeholders in the mining sector, said he was merely echoing President Muhammadu Buhari’s statement.

ITU to elect next management team @Romania - ITREALMS

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The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has advanced plans to elect its next management team at the forthcoming Plenipotentiary Conference holding in Bucharest, Romania, between 26 September and 14 October, reports ITREALMS.

ITU plays an integral role in enabling sustainable digital development and inclusive uptake of new services and technologies for all people everywhere.

Cake industry is next to Nollywood if ranked ... says Okoye Eniyi of Cakes by Somchez - ITREALMS

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United Kingdom (UK) trained baker and UNIPORT’s French graduate, Okoye Eniyi, is the Chief Executive Officer of Lekki, Lagos-based Cakes by Somchez, formally known as ‘Just Cakes by Somchez.’ She told ITREALMS correspondent GBEMI OMOTOSO that baking transcends her corporate world and ranks next to Nollywood.

Excerpts:

How did you come about the name?
A mixture of the first two letters of my oldest daughter name-SO, my husband's name-M, my second daughter's name-CH, my name-E and my last daughter's name-Z. Thats what formed SOMCHEZ.

Makarfi on 2023: Nigeria's next President should form government of national unity - ITREALMS

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The former Governor of Kaduna State, Senator Ahmed Makarfi has argued that because of divisions we currently have across the country, whoever becomes the next President of Nigeria should have the spirit of forming a Government of the national unity.

Makarfi, who made the call in Lagos on Tuesday at the Fourth Annual Lecture of Freedom Online newspaper, observed that the fabric that binds Nigerians together is getting thinner by the day.

Next big deal for Nigeria: NLNG Train 7 says MD - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

The Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG)’s Train 7 project has been aptly described as the next big deal for country, reports ITREALMS.

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NLNG, Mr. Tony Attah, gave this description in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State at the opening ceremony of the 9th Practical Nigerian Content Conference, Tuesday, saying that Train 7 will increase NLNG’s production capacity by 35 per cent, generate huge value for the company, shareholders and the country.

Attah also said the project is coming into reality, declared that “Train 7 is real; Train 7 is here. If you come to Bonny Island today, you will see that early site work has commenced and we are 97 per cent prepared, just waiting to take that Final Investment Decision (FID). “

He remarked that the relationship between NLNG and Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) on the Train 7 project was that of a partnership for progress. 

“We co-created the Nigerian Content Plan, working in harmony with the agency just to understand the interpretation of the law and then co-creating how we comply. Overall, it’s all about consolidation and co-creating the future. I am proud to say in March 2019, we signed off the Nigerian Content Plan for Train 7 project, delivering 100% Nigerian content in construction, production of cables, welding, valves, scaffolding, furniture, painting and medical. It is going to be 55% of in-country engineering and procurement man-hours.”

Attah equally said that the project will generate over 12, 000 direct jobs during construction phase and in the upstream industry, with multiple spin-off effects in other sectors of the economy, increasing the number of jobs that will be generated over a six-year project window. He stated further that the project will help reduce restiveness in the Niger-Delta region by providing jobs, calling for more projects in Nigeria to change the socio-economic narrative in the country.

Making a case for gas development in Nigeria, Attah said “we believe the future is gas; we believe the future is bright for Nigeria. We are a gas country with some oil because in reality, we have more gas. With the energy transition, gas will play more actively and that is why we say let’s focus on gas. But the question is how focused is Nigeria on gas?

“Let’s put this in perspective. Today, Australia has a gas reserve of 125 Trillion cubic feet (Tcf) but has 88 MTPA LNG capacity. Malaysia has 97 Tcf with over 29 MTPA capacity while Indonesia has 103 Tcf with an LNG capacity of 26 MTPA. Nigeria has a gas reserve of 200 Tcf with just 22 MTPA capacity. We have an unproven reserve of 600 Tcf, and if you add that to the proven reserves of 20 Tcf, we have the opportunity to be the fourth in the ranks of gas producing countries.

“In our positioning in the ranks of LNG producing countries, we moved down to 5th position once Australia and the United States of America came online. If we do nothing, we will continue to slide down. We have to focus on development of gas especially in the upstream sector. Nigeria has ridden on the back of oil for over 50 years. We believe it is time to fly on the wings of gas,” he said.

Attah stated that the partnership with NCDMB has produced the very first business to business service level agreement (SLA) to operationalise the Nigerian Content law, adding that other collaborative efforts with NCDMB have led to huge gains for Nigerian Content especially in his Company’s BGT plus project in six of its vessels were replaced in 2017.

He further said that NLNG in this year celebrated 30 years of incorporation and 20 years of reliable and safe production, adding that the history of the company can be told in blocks of 30 which includes 30 years of the company’s founding fathers trying to make the LNG vision come into reality, 30 years of safe operations and the next 30 years which concerns the future of NLNG.

He stated that within those years of operations, NLNG has been able to help reduce gas flaring from 60% to less than 20% moving the country’s ranking in the league of gas flaring countries from second to seventh position. He pointed out that with Train 7, Nigeria’s gas flaring status will be further improved.

The event was attended by executives in the public and the oil and gas sectors, including the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva; NCDMB Executive Secretary, Engr. Simbi Wabote; Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Faruk Sa’id; Shell Companies in Nigeria Country Chair and SPDC MD, Osagie Okunbor; Chairman and Managing Director of Mobil Producing Nigeria, Paul McGrath; Managing Director, Eni, Lorenzo Fiorillo; and Deputy Managing Director, Total, Guillaume Dulout, among others.

NLNG is owned by four Shareholders, namely, the Federal Government of Nigeria, represented by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (49%), Shell Gas B.V. (25.6%), Total Gaz Electricite Holdings France (15%), and Eni International N.A. N. V. S.àr. l (10.4%).

Chuks Egbuna/Editor

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Pix: (L-R) GMD, Aiteo Eastern Exploration & Production Co. Ltd., Victor Okoronkwo; Executive Secretary, NCDMB, Engr. Simbi Wabote; Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva; NLNG MD, Tony Attah; Emmanuel Uleh, Head, NC Compliance Assurance & Monitoring, NLNG.

Vodacom supports next generation ICT girls

ITREALMS:

The Vodacom Business Nigeria has organized a one-day industrial visit for female students from Grace High School, Gbagada and Lagoon Secondary School, Lekki as part of planned activities for the celebration of the recently concluded 7^th Edition of the International Girls in ICT Day, reports ITRealms.

Female students from the schools participated at the celebration where they won the Coding and STEM quiz competitions, respectively.

The International Girls in ICT Day Celebration was organized by e-Business Life Communication Limited, publishers of e-Business Life Magazine at the Oriental Hotel in Lekki, was part of a global campaign that seeks to encourage young girls to consider ICT as a profession and to contribute their quota to the growth of the industry in Nigeria while also actualizing self-development.

International Girls’ in ICT Day is an initiative launched through the Information Technology University (ITU) with the idea of creating a global environment that will empower and encourage girls and young women to consider careers in the ICT field. With the number of school girls opting to study technology-related disciplines in decline in most countries worldwide, ITU has committed itself towards championing the mindset change required to open the minds of young women to the role a career in tech can play in creating exciting, far-reaching opportunities for women.

In fulfilment of goal five of its Sustainable Development Goals, Vodacom Business has created various empowerment programs such as the Women in Leadership Programme aimed at creating leadership and personal capacity in women across all employee levels; the #ConnectedSheCan campaign, a socially driven campaign aimed at celebrating the accomplishments of women within the Vodacom Business Nigeria workforce; and the youth empowerment program, the ‘Power to You’ project under the umbrella of which the Girls in ICT Day is activated, to enable both girls and technology companies to reap the benefits of greater female participation in the ICT sector.

Speaking at this year’s Girls in ICT Day, Vodacom Business Nigeria’s Senior Manager for Product Development, Funke Atanda said: “Vodacom is committed to accelerating the change needed to create relevant opportunities for women through the use of ICT.”

“By supporting ICT skills acquisition for young girls, bringing them into our organizations and opening their minds to new technologies that exist and continue to develop, we are able to encourage more girls to choose courses in the ICT sector. This will help increase the number of women in the ICT sector in the near future,” Atanda said.

Moreover, Atanda alluded that “Initiatives like the ITU Girls in ICT Day would go a long way towards encouraging this change, thus strengthening the sector while continuing to improve social and economic progression in the country.”

By providing donations, training and support to ICT driven programs, Vodacom Business Nigeria is accelerating the removal of barriers for girls and women in the ICT industry.

Uj. N. Dominic/GEE

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Before the next round

Commentary@ITRealms:

I am inviting our country’s popular-democratic forces, especially the Nigerian Left, to join me in looking back once again. We have to look as the Nigerian state and the various fractions, factions, groups and blocs of the ruling class now begin to take the country through another political turbulence that will end in a reconstitution of their political representation. It is this reconstitution of its “political class” that the ruling class calls election.

This opening clarification leads to an opening proposition, namely: that if the Nigerian Left consciously, responsibly and seriously adopts electoralism, it is only its participation in elections as a tangible, coherent and relatively independent political force that will begin to introduce real and unexpected contradictions in elections. A real contradiction in this context is a contradiction with both reformist and revolutionary potentials. And I say “relatively independent”, rather than “independent” in describing the popular-democratic forces’ electoral participation because I do not, ab initio, rule out the possibility of alliance which, if it is real, imposes limitations on the freedom of all sides in an alliance.

Historians of independent Nigeria’s electoral politics usually begin the narrative from the federal election of December 1959. This was the election which the history books say determined the power structure which British colonialism left behind as it withdrew from Nigeria on October 1, 1960. Between that election and now, 58 years later, Nigeria has had nine other federal or national elections: 1964, 1979, 1983, 1993, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015. Leftists had participated in all the 10 elections. And, by Leftists I mean, broadly speaking, socialists as well as progressives and radical democrats who, even if they are not socialists, are not anti-socialist. The central question here is how Nigerian Leftists have so far participated in elections.

This central question may be put in context by locating each of the 10 federal or national elections in the political period it belongs. Nigeria’s First Republic is generally understood to be the period between October 1, 1960 and January 15, 1966, the date of the first military coup d’etat. This designation has come to stay although Nigeria did not become a republic until October 1, 1963, three years after independence. Only the 1964 election falls into the First Republic. Similarly, only the 1983 election falls under the Second Republic (October 1, 1979 – December 30, 1983). The Third Republic defined only by when it ended (November 17, 1993) and not when it started (when, please?) had no election within it.

The Fourth Republic, the current one, started on May 29, 1999. Four general elections have so far taken place in this period: 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015. The remaining four elections, that is, those of 1959, 1979, 1993 and 1999 do not belong to any of the four republics and may be called transition elections. The first of the four was conducted by the British colonialists while the other three were conducted by military regimes: General Olusegun Obasanjo (1979); General Ibrahim Babangida (1993) and General Abdulsalami Abubakar (1999).

Nigerian Leftists participated in the 1959 transition-from-colonialism election in one or more of four forms: as members of large and well-established ruling class parties; as members of small self-determination or radical-reformist parties; as members of small Leftist parties; or as independent candidates or supporters of independent candidates. The large ruling-class parties were the Northern People’s Congress (NPC) led by Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, the National Council of Nigeria and Cameroons (later, the National Council of Nigerian Citizens) (NCNC) led by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and the Action Group (AG) led by Chief Obafemi Awolowo. In the last decade of de-colonisation, that is, (1950-1960), these three parties, especially the AG and the NCNC, had received large numbers of young Leftists, including Marxists and labour activists, who had been dislodged from their independent formations by colonial repression. The Leftist entrants into the AG, with support and encouragement from Awolowo himself, transformed the party ideologically.

The small radical parties included the Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU) led by Mallam Aminu Kano and the self-determination parties included the United Middle Belt Congress (UMBC) led by Joseph Tarka. While NEPU was allied to the NCNC, UMBC was allied to the AG. Each alliance fielded a single slate of candidates. The small Leftist parties only participated in the election symbolically and for ideological and educational reasons.

In the 1964 federal election, the only federal election that took place in the First Republic, the 1959 forms of Left participation again appeared. By now the Leftist parties and groups had increased and enlarged. Beyond this, however, was a new development: a number of Leftist parties, including the Nigerian Labour Party (NLP), joined the AG and the NCNC in an alliance called the United Progressive Grand Alliance (UPGA). This was a mega-alliance whose component members included NCNC, AG, NEPU, UMBC and NLP. The alliance survived the December 1964 election and the supplementary election of March 1965. It then went on to fight the very bloody October 1965 Western Regional Election. The mass uprising generated by the last election led directly to the January 15, 1966 military coup d’etat.

The 1979 general election was a transition election: transition from the 13-year military dictatorship (1966-1979) to the Second Republic (1979-1983). By then several things had changed: the country had moved from the parliamentary to the presidential system; parties now had to be officially permitted and registered to participate in the contest; only very rich parties or parties of very rich people could satisfy the conditions for registration; participation as independent candidates had been abolished; and elections had become much more corrupt than they were in the First Republic.

For the Nigerian Left, the 1979 general election marked a sharp and tragic turn in the trajectory of the country’s electoral politics. In the first place, the huge material/financial conditions placed on the registration of political parties almost automatically ruled out genuinely Leftist parties. In the second place, the elimination of independent candidacy placed a stiff choice before intending Leftist candidates and unregistered and unregistrable Leftist parties.

This choice can be put like this: “Abandon your electoral ambition or come and seek a chance in one of the registered and registrable parties”. In the third place, since the big registered parties knew that the unregistered leftist parties and candidates could not participate in elections without coming to them, they imposed tough conditions on collaboration. The main condition invariably was: “Withdraw publicly from your platform and publicly join us. But you must join us as individuals, not as groups”.

This situation may be summarized this way: From the 1979 general election onwards the genuinely Leftist parties could participate in electoral contests in Nigeria only by liquidating themselves as they were and as they presented themselves. It was then that history presented the silent revolutionary alternative: “But if you must still participate in Nigerian elections, then you must adopt, or rather, return to, dialectics.

That means: differentiate between form and content; or rather, while retaining the revolutionary content, adopt two forms – one for elections and the other for the permanent democratic struggle of the masses.”

This strategic change, if adopted, frees you to seek alliances. For accessible historical illustration: First, check China in the years between the Japanese invasion and the end of Second World War. The alliance in mind here was the one between the Chinese Leftists and the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang).

After this, turn to the post-Second World War history of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Island and check the alliance between the various wings of Irish nationalism.

For contemporary illustration, turn to South Africa and check the Tripartite Alliance between the African National Congress (ANC), the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Confederation of South African Trade Unions (COSATU).

*Contributed by Edwin Madunagu, mathematician and journalist, writes from Calabar, Cross River State.

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IPv6, next battlefield says Uwaje

ITRealms:

The Vice Chairman of the Internet Protocol version Six (IPv6 Council Nigeria), Chief Chris Uwaje has described the IPv6 as the next frontier for global battlefield, especially for sustainable development and wealth creation, reports ITRealms.

Uwaje made this observation during his presentation on IPv6 Adoption: Imperative for a Nigeria Strategic Plan at the just ended AfriNIC 27 which held in Lagos, at the weekend.

Uwaje, who is a software engineer and former president, Institute of Software Professionals of Nigeria (ISPON) also described IPv6 as gradually becoming absolute prefix to the Internet.

He also beckoned on African nations to take advantage of IPv6 opportunities by advancing their strategic plans.

“… I believe that very soon, IPv6 will become the absolute Prefix to the Internet and African nations must take advantage of this awesome opportunity by advancing IPv6 strategic plans,” he said.

According to him, the creation of new wealth in the world resides in IPv6 and Internet of Thing (IoT) strategic intervention at allcritical levels of development.

Africa, he said, stands the dawn of technology opportunity and will benefit immensely, if government policy encourages the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry and stakeholders to lead the advocacy and promotion of IPv6 adoption as a gateway to sustainable development in the continent.

He pointed out that thi s, will spur innovation, create employment for the Youth, improve global e-Readiness status, improve our national security concerns and accelerate global competitiveness.

“For this and other cogent reasons, a strategic plan is imperative to improve IPv6 adoption in Nigeria and the Continent,” he said.

Uwaje further said that today, the world is gradually living IPv4 behind and continues to register accelerated adoption and growth in end-user IPv6 deployment in many developed countries.

Chuks Egbune/GEE/ED, Ops

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