FG restates commitment to June deadline for digital switchover (Read full details)

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Digital Migration

The Federal Government has reiterated its resolve to meet the June 2017 deadline set by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) for Nigeria to achieve Digital SwitchOver (DSO) from analogue system.

Chairman, House of Representatives Ad hoc Committee on Digital Switch Over, Mr. Sunday Marshall Katung gave the assurance on Monday while inspecting facilities at the Gospell Digital Company at the Calabar Free Trade Zone, one of the Setup Boxes (STOs) manufacturers.

According to him: “Manufacturing the set up boxes is an integral part of the contract in the digital switch over process and that is why we have come to see how far these companies have gone on these boxes.

“At least we have established that two companies exist here in Cross River. We have seen SMK and Gospell and we are impressed with what we met on ground,”

Vía Uzomedia http://ift.tt/2mVq0Am

CocoIce leaves as two ‘fake’ new housemates walk in

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CocoIce

It was the end of the road on Sunday, February 12 for singer, CocoIce, a housemate in the ongoing Big Brother Naija reality TV competition, as she was announced the latest evictee. She was nominated alongside other housemates – Bassey, Bisola, Debie-Rise and Gifty – for possible eviction the previous week.

She was shown the exit door as she earned the least amount of votes, which terminated her stay in the house and her race for the N25 million prize money. Her exit from the competition follows that of Soma and Miyonse, who were evicted last week. As always, housemates waited with baited breath as the show host, Ebuka Obi-Uchendu, revealed the results of the votes. Like the previous eviction show, the nominated housemates were sent to the arena, from where the eventual evicted housemate was announced by the host Ebuka.

Bisola was the first eviction nominee for the week to be announced ‘safe’ as she secured over 40 percent of votes as later revealed. Next was Gifty, who was asked to leave the house, and then CocoIce.

With Bassey and Debie-Rise as the remaining last two nominated housemates standing, he was relieved when he was asked to sit and Debie-Rise sent out of the house. At the arena, Ebuka reveals CocoIce as the evicted housemate and with that announcement, CocoIce made her final exit out of the BBNaija house.

During her interview with Ebuka on stage, CocoIce said she was nervous, as it was a new experience for her. She maintained that she did not know how to play the game and she was ready to go home to greatness.

When asked whom she thought might have evicted her, she shrugged and said TTT, Bisola and Uriel, were her top guesses. She, however, was not surprised when it was revealed to her that Uriel had indeed nominated her.

Ebuka had, at the start of the show, announced that one housemate would be evicted, while Big Brother would introduce two new ‘fake’ housemates into the house. These new housemates as explained by Ebuka would not be going into the house for the competition, rather, to ‘shake the housemates up a bit’ by causing drama in the house.

The fake new housemates, Jon and Ese, made their entry into the house without suspicion from the housemates, as Ebuka later announced that they are immune to this week’s eviction and also cannot take part in the nomination process. Multiple award-winning artiste, Falz the bad guy, added spice to the eviction show as he performed two of his hit songs ‘Well done sir’ and ‘Soft work.’

With the truth or dare games over, some of the housemates decided it was time to call it a day and went to bed, but a few decided it was time to pair up with their crushes. Gifty and Bally shared a ‘passionate kiss’ that silenced every other housemate. Kemen decided to go wake-up Debie-Rise for a midnight chat about the birds and the bees, after Gifty, who teased him about giving him a blowjob, dropped him.

The drama in the house came to a head, when the housemates realised that the pot of brew had gone missing, with Captain Efe, ThinTallTony and Marvis accusing Bisola of hiding the pot of brew.After an intense search, the pot was found and it’s content quickly guzzled and then the accusations began.

Who stole the pot of brew? It turned out that Bassey was the one behind the saga.With the nomination for this week done on Monday, February 13, and three housemates — ThinTallTony, Marvis and Gifty — up for possible eviction, fans of the hit reality show are unsure of who would eventually be evicted on Sunday, February 19.

The live nominations show took a dramatic turn, when the new housemate and Head of House, Ese decided to use her power and saved TBoss, who got four nominations and replaced her with Marvis, who had two nominations.

Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2lNWMii

Heritage Bank restructures operations

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Heritage Bank Limited

Heritage Bank Plc has restructured its operations in a bid to ensure greater efficiency and resource optimisation.

This, the bank noted is in line with its growth and industry innovative agenda designed to strengthen its businesses across all the markets it operates.

The restructuring process is meant to upscale the bank’s activities in the strategic sectors of the economy as well as deploy apt expertise and competences to specific business areas where it enjoys comparative business advantage.

The bank explained that the recent restructuring came after a review of its staff composition, the bank’s strategic direction vis-à-vis desired industry standards and service deliverables.

Already, the bank has elevated some members of its workforce with higher responsibilities in line with its strategic direction to sustain performance, while there were also casualties, but have been adequately compensated.

Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2l5ehhn

‘My mother warned me against stealing,’ one- chance robbery suspect confesses

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The suspect, Alao

Ajibola Alao, 29, a member of a one-chance gang arrested by operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of the Lagos State Police Command, has disclosed that his failure to heed his late mother’s advice not to steal other people’s belonging, has led to his arrest.

Alao was chased by RRS officers on patrol and arrested at the weekend during one of his operations in Oshodi after dispossessing their lone passenger of his two phones and the sum of N61,000.

The suspect, in company of the driver and conductor of their operational bus, a Volkswagen transporter, with the registration number, APP 820 XE, had picked up their passenger, Asotie Benedict, at Ladipo with an agreed plan to drop him at Oshodi under-bridge.

Alao and his accomplices, armed with an alternative plan, instead of stopping at Oshodi for him to alight, rather sped off, citing the presence of Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) officials at the bus stop. It was at this point they dispossessed Asotie of his two mobile phones (Blackberry Passport and Samsung) and his wallet containing N61,000 before forcing him to alight while the vehicle, which was in motion.

According to the 24-year-old victim, “after throwing me out, they threw N100 to me, perhaps, for me to find my way back home. But, I didn’t give up, I chased after the bus. 

“Fortunately, I sighted RRS vehicle, Response 091 and I quickly alerted them and they chased the vehicle to a halt. They arrested Alao, who took all I had on me but the driver and the conductor abandoned their vehicle and escaped.”

He added: “All they took from me were found on him and some additional phones, which he disclosed to the police they took from previous victims of their one chance operations.”

Alao, in his confessional statement, disclosed to be part of a three-man one chance gang and that the two additional phones in his possession belonged to two previous victims of their operation at Oshodi.

“I have been in the business of one- chance since 2015. At a point, I stopped and began pick pocketing, joining buses to Sango, Agege, Oshodi, Apapa and disembarking whenever I had fleeced commuters of their phones and money.

“I was once arrested in Mushin Olosa Police Station. My mother, who was very ill and on admission in a hospital at that time, was brought to see me in detention. She pleaded with the officers and secured my bail. She warned me repeatedly never to take other people’s sweat.

“She told me if I have been using other people’s sweat to foot her hospital bills, I should stop it forthwith. She insisted that if I wanted to live long, I should stop stealing from people. She added that the consequences would be too severe for me if I went back. A few weeks after the incident, she died.”

Confirming the development, the state’s Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Dolapo Badmos, said the command would not rest on its oars in nipping in the bud criminal activities in the state.

Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2kbNH2t

‘Revised Ikeja master plan will address infrastructural challenges’

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Lagos State Commissioner of Physical Planning and Urban Development, Anifowoshe Abiola Wasiu.

Current efforts by the Lagos State government to revise the existing Ikeja Model City Plan is to address infrastructural challenges in the capital city with a view to making it more sustainable, organised, liveable and investors friendly.

The State Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Abiola Anifowoshe disclosed this at the public presentation of the final draft of the revised Masterplan to stakeholders and the public for necessary input, comments and observations before implementation.

According to him, the state is determined to produce strategic master plans for the entire state as envisioned in the Lagos State Development Plan (2012-2025).

Already, eight out of the 12 new development plans proposed for the state, are operational. They include Lekki Comprehensive Master Plan, Badagry Master Plan, Ikoyi-Victoria Island Model City Plan, Ikeja Model City Plan, Apapa Model City Plan, Lagos Mainland Model City Plan, Alimosho Model City Plan and Agege Model City Plan.

The other three, which include; Epe, Ikorodu and Oshodi-Isolo Master/Model City Plans, are at different stages of completion. The Commissioner said that of Kosofe would commence later in the year.

Anifowoshe, an architect and town planner stressed that the review of the old plan was necessitated by contemporary physical planning challenges and the inability of the existing Ikeja MCP (2008 – 2018) to solve emerging planning problems.

He further described the master plan as the second amongst the Operative Development Plans to be reviewed after Ikoyi-Victoria Island Model City plan which was reviewed in 2015.

Also speaking the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, Mrs. Boladele Dapo-Thomas stressed that the proposed plan is at the public presentation level and open to inputs, comments, ideas and observations for incorporation into the on-going revision exercise,

She described the review as necessary and timely, saying “the existing Ikeja Model City Plan has been comprehensively evaluated and the challenges inherent therein have been meticulously studied, this review is necessitated by changes; hence, innovative recommendations subject to global best practices in contemporary planning concepts are adopted and contained in the report”.

For the Chairman Lagos State House Committee on Physical planning and Urban Development, Setonji David, there is need to review obsolete laws that is militating against development in the state.

Some of the proposals for the revised master plan, include construction of a fly over bridge at Allen Avenue round about and twin water tower tom provide additional two million gallons of water per day to service projected population of over 7 million in ten years time.

Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2jR1peV

Why 1914 amalgamation is Nigeria’s bane

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Nigeria map. PHOTO: nigeriamap.facts.co

Every problem Nigeria has ever faced and will ever face can be traced to that demonic event of 1914 when the British merged the Southern and Northern protectorates into one country that is today known as Nigeria.
   
Britain had only one thing in mind while carrying out the amalgamation: Their administrative and economic convenience. Nothing more. The action of the British can be compared to a man who bought both herbivorous and carnivorous animals from the market and chose to put them in one cage to make it convenient for him to transport them home. This man knew that herbivores feed on herbs and are very harmless and easygoing while carnivores feed on flesh and are most times very aggressive and violent. In other words , the herbivorous animals in that cage might end up as meat for the carnivorous ones even before the man would reach his destination. He knew all these but still chose to put both animals together.
   
Do we need the brain of Albert Einstein to figure out the fact that the welfare of these animals was the last thing on this man’s mind? Rather, all he cared about was getting them all home whether dead or alive without spending extra money for another cage and extra  fare for that new cage.

   
Even my three-month-old niece knows that the North and South have absolutely little in common. Not the same language, not the same culture, not the same religion, not the same ancestry, not even the same worldviews and as such, can’t possibly live together as one country.
   
Nigeria is many nations forced to remain within an unworkable forced marriage. The amalgamation was borne out of compulsion. That line “one Nation bound in freedom, peace and unity” in our national anthem is one hell of a dirty lie. Where is the freedom? Where is the peace? Where is the unity? I really think we’ve had enough of the rhetoric, the lies, the delusion. It is high time we got down to the real business of paying ourselves the courtesy of being blunt.
 
The “One Nigeria” slogan is one of the biggest organised lies of the century. There is absolutely nothing  “One” about Nigeria. If we look at all the happenings in the country since 1914 till date, we will discover that the only thing that binds us together is mutual suspicion of one another.
 
A very influential Yoruba monarch once threatened to drown Igbo resident in Lagos in the lagoon, yet, not even a single shop owned by an Igbo man was burnt in Lagos as a result of that threat. Of all the cat and dog fights between the Yoruba and the Igbo, there has been no case of these two tribes attacking each other physically. They always end in long grammar which is how decent beings end their misunderstanding.
   
But for some other regions, every disagreement must end in bloodshed.Despite all the brutalities of the government, IPOB has never killed innocent people. Despite the volume of arms at its disposal, OPC has never attacked innocent people. Despite the gravity of environmental terrorism the Federal Government has carried out in the Niger Delta, neither MEND nor the AVENGERS ever bombed innocent people.

But even without provocation, the terrorists in other parts of Nigeria kill and maim innocent people and take over their land with the active support of the government.

  
All the killings of innocent people that have been carried out so far starting from the Igbo pogrom of 1945 in Jos and that of 1953 in Kano were all carried out by enemies of Nigeria unity.
   
Are we all waiting for a Rwanda 1994 example before we summon the needed courage to stop believing our own lie about Nigeria being one?This country has since reached its elastic limit. It can no longer stretch again. India and Pakistan were once a country. Today, look at India and look at Pakistan and tell me what you see!

The only solution to all the problems of this country is federalism in letter and spirit. Anything short of this will only leave us with the peace of the graveyard which is no peace at all. We must renegotiate our co-existence.Ogbu, a social analyst, wrote from Port Harcourt.

Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2kbLFQ4

Bukas & Joints returns for Season Three

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Following its successful outing with the first and second season of food/travel docu-series, Bukas & Joints, Biola Alabi Media is thrilled to announce the premiere of the third season of the show, with OAP Olisa Adibua retaining his job as host. The programme airs on AIT this February in Nigeria.

The past two seasons of Bukas and Joints left audiences licking their lips in anticipation and salivating at mouthwatering African dishes. And according to producers, “this third season promises to be a sensational hit with even more locations, even more variety of cuisines and more businesses determined to take African cuisine to the next level. Season 3 will definitely have audiences clamoring for more.”

Olisa Adibua, the show’s delightful host returns again this season and this time around he is taking on street food and local joints within our African borders, sharing the uniqueness of authentic African cuisine. The show encourages the audience to explore the wide range and diversity of the African cuisine.

“Here at Biola Alabi Media, we are committed to telling authentic African stories and showcasing the richness of Africa’s cultural heritage to the world,” said Biola Alabi, the creator and executive producer of the show.

While assuring that the new season will have a wider reach than the first two seasons, Alabi said, “the third season of Bukas and Joints is expanding its reach by exploring African cuisine within Africa. There are a lot of untold stories behind the evolution of our cuisines over time, and we are looking to share these stories and the imprints our cuisines have made over different cultures.”

She thanked partners and sponsors of the show for their support and commitment. This season’s sponsors are Heritage Bank and Grand Cereals makers of Grand Pure Soya Oil and Kilamanjaro Restaurant.

In the new season, which features celebrity guests such as Seyi Shay, Cohbams Asuquo, Osas Ajibade and others, Olisa continues his exhilarating journey of unraveling the mysteries behind our traditional cuisines, the unconditional ties that keep us connected to our cultural heritage.

Meanwhile, the new season, which comes with a brand new original theme song, was filmed in two new locations, the Coal City of Enugu and the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja. The episode count has also been extended to 15 episodes, bringing the total number of Bukas and Joints episodes to an impressive 42.

Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2l5ULhX

Youths should obtain lifeline from World Bank for agribusiness, says Rep

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Farming

To bolster agribusiness in Nigeria, the nation may need the support of World Bank to give soft loans to qualified youths, willing to go into mechanized agriculture, a House of Representatives member representing Ijero, Ekiti-West and Efon Federal constituency of Ekiti state, Oni Olamide Johnson has said.

Presenting certificates to 45 graduates he sponsored on mechanized agriculture training at National Centre for Agricultural Mechanization (NCAM), Ilorin, he said he would assist the trainees to secure the much needed funds from the World Bank towards making them self employed.

Disclosing the propensity for his choice of empowerment programme for the youths, he said without adequate knowledge of mechanized agriculture it would be harder for them to break through.

According to him, his attempt at starting large scale farming some years back failed due to his ignorance of the elementary knowledge of the required skills.

Speaking, the Acting Director of NCAM Dr Yomi Kasali insisted that Olamide’s gesture would reduce poverty among members of his constituency just as he challenged other lawmakers to emulate him.

Kasali while viewing Nigeria’s unemployment ratio as a stumbling block to harnessing the potentials of the nation’s youth, added that Nigeria’s hope of industrialization would be hindered unless agriculture is allowed to take its rightful place in the area of production of raw materials for the moribund industries in the country.

Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2l2aXEq