UTME highest scorer: Anambra sets up panel of inquiry - ITREALMS

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The Government of Anambra State has set up a panel of inquiry into the controversy surrounding the highest scorer in the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination organised by the Joint Admission & Matriculation Board (JAMB), reports ITREALMS.

The Education Commissioner for Anambra State, Prof. Ngozi Chuma-Udeh disclosed at a media chat in Awka, regretted that the development was very embarrassing, coming at a time when the Soludo-led administration is repositioning in her avowed determination to get education right in the state.

Ndukwe hails Gov. Otti on assets recovery panel - ITREALMS

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The convener, Think Home Campaign, Chief Mrs Oby Ndukwe, has hailed Gov Otti’s appointment of retired Justice Duroha-Igwe as Chairman, Judicial Panel of Enquiry on Assets Recovery, reports ITREALMS.

In his administration’s bid to recover all Abia State Government Properties and Funds that were looted and are in the hands of retrogressive forces, the governor of Abia State, his Excellency Dr. Alex Otti has set up a Judicial Panel of Enquiry for the Recovery of Government Properties and Funds headed by Rtd Justice Florence Duroha-Igwe.

Lady kills boss over inflated job @FCCPC, claims sexual harassments, investigative panel emerges - ITREALMS

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The Katsina State Police Command has arrested one Ms Muhibat Taiwo Abdulsalam, a staff of the Federal Competitive Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), Katsina branch, over alleged murder of her boss, Mr. Julius Haruna, 57, in his office, over suspected inflated job, reports ITREALMS.

The Police also confirmed that Ms Muhibat is notorious for fighting previous four directors before the deceased, who is the Northwest Zonal Coordinator of the commission in his office and accused him of sexual harassment, last Wednesday.

UN Secretary-General appoints PIN’s ED, Gbenga Sesan to High-Level Internet Leadership Panel - ITREALMS

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The Paradigm Initiative’s (PIN) Executive Director, Mr. ‘Gbenga Sesan is among 10 high-level and eminent persons appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General to serve on his inaugural Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Leadership Panel.

The appointment by the UN Secretary-General, Mr. António Guterres, is a major milestone for Mr. Sesan and the Pan-African digital rights and inclusion organization as it is an endorsement to its role in expanding digital rights and freedoms on the continent.

GOCOP president, Oladipo, joins panel to unveil 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer

ITREALMS:

Preferred West Africa’s partner of Edelman, Chain Reactions Nigeria, has named the President of Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) Mr. Dotun Oladipo as panelist for the 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer, reports ITRealms.

Chain Reactions Nigeria, ITRealms gathered is one of Nigeria’s leading Public Relations and Integrated Communications consulting firms and the exclusive Nigerian affiliate of Edelman, the world’s largest PR firm with presence in 65 countries across the globe.

ITRealms confirmed that on May 31, Chain Reactions would host an event to unveil the report of the 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer.

Edelman Trust Barometer, ITRealms gathered, is the annual global trust and credibility survey conducted by Edelman Intelligence, the independent research arm of the Edelman global network.

The survey consists of 25-minute online interviews whereby respondents are asked questions on how much they trust the four mainstream institutions of society like government, business, media and non-governmental organisations to do what is right.

Since 2001, Edelman has been measuring trust in these four critical institutions of society across 28 countries, but this year is the first time Nigeria has been included in the survey.

The inclusion of an exclusive deck on Nigeria by Edelman Intelligence is on the heels of the significant impressions recorded last year when Chain Reactions hosted the presentation of the 17th edition of the annual global survey in Lagos, the first time ever in the history of Nigeria and since the survey was established in 2001.

Impressed with the positive impressions recorded with the presentation of last year’s Edelman Trust Barometer Report in Lagos, a delegation of senior Edelman executives, to be led by the Managing Director of Edelman, South Africa, Jordan Rittenberry, is scheduled to be in Nigeria to officially present the 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer Report in Lagos.

Rittenberry was also in Lagos last year for the launch of the 2017 edition, which attracted a large attendance of key representatives of government, CEOs of marketing communications firms, media executives and key representatives from non-governmental organisations.

Commenting on the significance of having exclusive data on Nigeria in this year’s survey, Managing Director/Chief Strategist of Chain Reactions Nigeria, Israel Jaiye Opayemi, expressed delight that Chain Reactions is taking leadership and stepping ahead of its peers in helping to overcome dearth of reliable data required by organisations in the public and private sectors to develop strategy for their growth.

“Lack of trust is a major factor that impacts organisational reputation everywhere. It is affecting government and businesses alike. This bespoke report on how Nigerians trust their government, businesses, the media and non-governmental organisations operating in Nigeria will become the most useful manual in the hands of those saddled with running these institutions,” he said.

This report, he said, will put quick insights and knowledge at the disposal of decision makers in government, business, media and non-governmental organisations on how to build or strengthen their trust equity.

“Last year, we made a promise to Nigerians to ensure we have a Nigeria-specific data in the 2018 survey, and we are glad to announce that together with our partners in Edelman, Chain Reactions has delivered on this noble promise. This is a demonstration of what we preach in business,” he said.

An eight-man panel comprising seasoned professionals, media practitioners, government officials and civil society activists will be discussing the survey report and its implications for Nigeria.

ITRealms further reports that respected investment analyst and chief executive officer (CEO) of Financial Derivatives, Bismack Rewane, would chair the occasion. He would be joined by GOCOP president, Mr. Dotun Oladipo and Seasoned Journalist and Editor of BusinessDay newspaper, Anthony Osae-Brown as panelists to discussing building trust for the media in the age of fake news.

Others include Lead Consultant/CEO of Thistle Praxis, Ini Abimbola, and Stanbic Bank’s Executive Head of Marketing and Communications, Nkiru Olumide-Ojo, who would be dwelling on growing trust for businesses.

Additionally, respected personalities expected to lend their voices to the trust discourse at the event will include Publisher of Ovation Magazine and Columnist with THISDAY newspaper, Chief Dele Momodu, as well as the Commissioner for Information and Strategy in Lagos State, Kehinde Bamigbetan, who will represent Governor Akinwunmi Ambode and occupy a place on the panel for government.

Opayemi pointed out that the exclusive report would also help the key institutions of government, business, media and non-governmental organisations to future-proof their efficiency, value delivery and sustainability as they become more aware of how citizens perceive and trust them while they also take proactive steps to improve on their trust assets.

Nenye Dom/GEE

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Cyberterrorism, violent extremism top agenda @High Profile Panel

ITRealms:

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Application Programme Interface (API) have concluded plans to host a High Profile Panel Discussion to discuss Kenya’s preparedness and overall strategy to insulate the 2017 general election against the threat of violent extremism and cybercrime, reports ITRealms.

This is coming as Kenya prepares for the general election on 08 August 2017, ITRealms reports that there are emerging challenges facing the country.

These include the twin challenges of violent extremism and cyberattacks which have the potential to undermine public confidence and trust in the electoral process in general and the legitimacy of the election outcome.

Participants to the forum, slated for Monday, June 12 at the Hotel Intercontinental, ITRealms gathered would also identify early-warning indicators and undertake analysis of risk to Kenya’s stability before, during and after the 2017 election.

While some of the speakers expected include Wafula Chebukati, Chairperson, IEBC, Mr. Siddarth Charterjee, UN Resident Coordinator/UNDP Resident Representative, Kenya; Prof. Peter Kagwanja, President and CEO Africa Policy Institute and Christopher Msando, ICT Director IEBC.

Nonye Dom/GEE

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ZA Central Registry not removed from new gTLD - ICANN Counsel

ITRealms:

The General Counsel and Secretary to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), Mr. John Jeffrey has declared that the recent panel decision on .Africa does not remove the ZA Central Registry from the new Generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) programme, reports ITRealms. 

Mr. Jeffrey made this clarification in a blogpost Friday, insisting that the decision of the Panel "Declaration" issued in the DotConnectAfrica Trust (DCA) v. ICANN independent review process (DCA .AFRICA IRP or IRP) proceedings, does  not preclude the right of ZA Central Registry on pursuing new gTLD project.

He also gave some explanation on why ICANN was quick to publish the Panel decision despite its lawful requirement to implement redact at all times.

Excerpts from his blog post below:

Recently some questions have been raised regarding our posting of a partially redacted final "Declaration" issued by the Panel in the DotConnectAfrica Trust (DCA) v. ICANN independent review process (DCA .AFRICA IRP or IRP) proceedings.

Some misinformation and erroneous reporting have framed parts of the discussion. In this blog, I would like to present facts and clarify a number of points, including the reasons for posting a revised version of the Declaration.

Why Publish a Redacted Declaration?

As background, ICANN has a commitment to the community to post any IRP declaration as soon as reasonably possible. ICANN initially published a redacted version of the IRP Panel's Declaration in the DCA .AFRICA IRP on 9 July 2015, within 24 hours of receiving it.

Today we are publishing a second version with fewer redactions. So, why are we publishing two versions with different levels of redaction?

Specifically, under ICANN's bylaws, an IRP Panel may grant requests to keep certain information confidential, such as personally identifiable information, trade secrets, internal correspondence, and correspondence with third parties. In the case of DCA v. ICANN, the IRP Panel determined that:

• Documents exchanged as confidential by the parties could not be publicly disclosed.
• Reference to information in these documents in parties' written submissions must be redacted prior to public posting. This is a noted common practice in similar commercial arbitrations and the practice has been adopted in the IRP proceedings so that as much information as possible can be placed in the record for the panel to make its decision.

Upon receiving the Declaration from the IRP Panel, we were under an affirmative obligation found in our confidentiality agreement and IRP Panel Procedural Order #4 to redact all confidential information exchanged during the IRP proceedings.

Immediately upon receipt of the Declaration, our legal counsel began to make obligatory redactions to protect material that the parties had mutually agreed was confidential. This was done in order to meet our obligation to post quickly (within the first business day following receipt of the Declaration).

In retrospect, we could have, and should have, noted on the posted document and on website that it contained redactions and explained the reasons for the redactions.

For the sake of increased clarity, we have now altered our process for posting IRP declarations. 

Going forward we will ensure that in addition to marking as "Redacted" each part of the document that is redacted, we will also make clear when posting a declaration whether there are redactions in it, and will state the reasons for the redactions, as we have done in today's posted version.

In the case of the DotConnectAfrica Trust (DCA) v. ICANN declaration, immediately after the initial posting of the declaration, ICANN's external legal counsel began reviewing each redaction to determine whether it could be released. 

If the information redacted came from ICANN, we tried to answer several questions -- Did it contain confidential information? Did it contain privileged information? Could the privilege be waived? And, did it contain third party or applicant information that we did not have the right to publish without permission? 

If the information under question had been requested to be confidential by a party or entity that was providing the information to ICANN, we tried to answer a different set of questions  -- Have we gained their permission to publish it?  If DCA's information -- has their counsel or DCA lifted their request that it be considered confidential? Will they do so if we ask them to lift confidentiality?

If the information in question was from ICANN, we were able to review it very quickly. But for the information supplied by others, we were required to reach out to each of the parties.

In the case of DCA, we initially reached out to DCA's lawyers, then when we learned that DCA was no longer represented by legal counsel and we had to reach out to DCA directly.

We also sought the release of information that other impacted parties had requested be kept confidential by reaching out directly to each of those involved. 

The most recent version of the Declaration that we are publishing is a result of our efforts to remove those redactions. There are still some redactions and we have indicated the reasons why they still exist in the revised version.

ICANN Staff Assistance on New gTLD Applications

Some have viewed the redactions as support for an allegation DCA made during the IRP proceedings that ICANN staff had not treated DCA fairly. Specifically, it has been suggested that staff improperly assisted the African Union Commission (AUC) by helping to ensure that its letter of support for another applicant satisfied the necessary criteria. The DCA IRP Declaration does not address this allegation, but since the allegation is being discussed, it warrants some clarification.

If an applicant has applied for a gTLD string that is a geographic name, such as .AFRICA, the applicant must submit documentation of support for, or nonobjection to, its application from the relevant governments or public authorities. The existence of support or nonobjection is the primary objective, and the manner in which it is documented is secondary.

ICANN staff has helped many applicants and their supporters understand how to properly document support. Not only did we make a template support letter publicly available to all as part of the New gTLD Program Applicant Guidebook (see Appendix to Module 2), we have answered questions, received through our customer service channel, as to how interested parties can document support for a given gTLD application. In the case of ZA Central Registry, ICANNappropriately assisted the applicant in documenting support from the AUC.

Our actions surrounding the .AFRICA applications were not unique, since we assist any applicant who requests assistance, or who needs clarification in learning how best to document support or other matters. We have provided assistance to all applicants regarding their applications to the maximum extent possible.

Impact on .AFRICA Delegation 

Questions have also been raised regarding statements made by DCA about the impact of this decision on the other .AFRICA application.  In a statement in recent days, DCA was quoted as saying that:

Going forward, we now expect ICANN to accept the binding IRP outcome, refrain from any further plans to delegate .Africa to the ZA Central Registry who should now be removed immediately from the new gTLD program; and cooperate fully with DCA Trust to ensure that the IRP Panel ruling is implemented so that .Africa can be delegated to DotConnectAfrica Trust under a cooperative framework that will satisfy the stipulations of DCA's charitable objectives." [bold emphasis added]

The ICANN Board adopted the panel's recommendation at its Board meeting on 16 July 2015.

This decision does not remove the ZA Central Registry from the New gTLD Program, nor is there any part of the Declaration that calls for that result. The impact on ZA Central Registry is that ICANN "will refrain from delegating .AFRICA" pending the outcome of the evaluation process on DCA's application.

As called for in the Board resolution, ICANN has "resume[d] the evaluation of DCA's application for .AFRICA. The evaluations will be performed in accordance with processes laid out in the Applicant Guidebook.

To summarize, ICANN's actions in redacting parts of the IRP Declaration at the outset were motivated by our obligation to the community to post the document quickly and the competing, yet mandatory obligation, to respect confidential information while being as transparent as possible.

@John Jeffrey, ICANN's General Counsel & Secretary +ICANNnews +ITRealms DSA 

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