Buhari appoints Abike Dabiri as SSA on foreign affairs

President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed Abike Dabiri-Erewa as Senior Special Assistant on Foreign and Diapora Affairs.

Dabiri-Erewa, a former member of the House of Representatives from Lagos, received her appointment letter at the State House in Abuja few minutes ago.

She was born in Jos, Plateau State and a former member of the Nigeria Federal House of Representatives representing Ikorodu Constituency in Lagos State.

She was the Chairman of the House Committee on Media & Publicity. She was also the former Chair of the House Committee on Diaspora Affairs.

She was elected for the first time in 2003, and re-elected in 2007 and 2011.

Dabiri-Erewa worked for the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) for fifteen years, anchoring the weekly NTA Newsline programme and taking a particular interest in poverty and social justice issues.

She retired from her position at Nigerian Television Authority to stand for election in the House of Representatives, winning with a substantial majority. While in this role, she stood against the third term bid of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Dabiri-Erewa sponsored a number of significant bills that were passed by Parliament, including:

1. The Freedom of Information Bill

2. A bill for an act to ensure full integration of Nigerians with physical disabilities and eliminate all forms of discrimination against them.

3. The Nigerian Infant Health Welfare Bill (ensuring every child under five receives free medical care)

4. Nigerian Diaspora Commission Bill

5. A bill to repeal Nigerian Press Council Bill and replace it with the Nigerian Press and Journalism Council Bill (strengthening the NPC and promote responsible journalism and protect the welfare of journalists in Nigeria).

The appointment takes immediate effect.

With AIT News

NCC may regulate use of WhatsApp, BBM, Facebook, Skype in Nigeria

The Nigerian Communications Commission is considering a framework for the regulation of over-the-top services in the Nigerian telecoms market, according to a report by Premium Times.

Over-the-top services, otherwise known as OTT, are services carried over the networks, delivering value to customers, but without any carrier service provider being involved in planning, selling, provisioning, or servicing them.

OTT services are offered through Internet communication.

In Nigeria, the most common OTT services are WhatsApp messenger, BlackBerry Messenger, Facebook, and Skype which are classified under social media applications.

In other words, telecom operators such as MTN, Etisalat, Glo, and Airtel lack direct control or influence over WhatsApp messenger, BBM, Facebook or Skype.

Internet telephony and live streaming are also part of OTT services.

The growth of OTT services is encouraged by the access to 3G and 4G networks which offer mobile broadband and high speed IP data.

A report, ‘An Overview of Provision of Over The Top [OTT] Services’ published recently by the Policy, Competition & Economic Analysis Department of the Nigerian Communications Commission, says OTT services were becoming a threat to the traditional telephone network operators.

This development, the report said, is a global issue.

The threat, according to the NCC report, comes from the fact that Internet telephony is not only cheap, and free in some cases, but it also offers many features previously unavailable with telephones, therefore making it more attractive to consumers.

And unlike the traditional telephone network operator, the operators of Internet telephony don’t pay tolls for their services.

The report also stated that since telecom operators such as MTN, Etisalat, Glo and Airtel do not have control over WhatsApp, BBM, Facebook and the rest of the social media applications, they (the telecom operators) do not generate revenues from services offered through these applications.

The report said, “Many traditional telecom service providers are of the opinion that traditional telephony and SMS revenues are under threat from newer, IP based alternatives like WhatsApp, Skype, Viber etc.

“Similarly, third party web content and social networking companies such as Google and Facebook are increasingly generating huge revenues and driving high levels of data traffic which ride on the broadband networks of traditional telecom operators’.

“To further worsen this issue, the traditional operators still have to make significant investments in upgrading their networks to handle the increasing volume of data generated by the same providers of OTT services.

“Most traditional telephone network service providers therefore argue that unless there is a revenue flow to them from such services, they do not have an incentive to continue to maintain or upgrade the networks,” the report said.

The NCC also believed there is need for some kind of regulation because OTT services portend security risks to the country.

“Because VoIP relies on your Internet connection, it may be vulnerable to many of the same problems that face computers,” the report said.

“Attackers may be able to perform activities such as intercepting communications, eavesdropping, taking control of phones, making fraudulent calls from an account, conducting effective phishing attacks by manipulating one’s caller ID, and causing service to crash.”

With AIT News

Boko Haram militants trained in Somalia: President

Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, President of Somalia, speaks at the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, February 14, 2016. (Reuters)

Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud says Nigeria’s Boko Haram militants have been trained in his country before going back to West Africa.

Mohamud said at a security conference in Germany that militant groups in Africa are associated and that the African states need to be organized to be able to deal with their threats.

He noted that his country, which is plagued by attacks by al-Shabab militants as well as corruption and political infighting, has only made limited progress in setting up a working political system.

Somalia has not had a functioning central administration since civil war erupted a quarter of a century ago.

"Without a stable Somalia, the whole region of the Horn of Africa will remain unstable and by and large, the African continent. There are proofs and evidence that (for) some time Boko Haram has been trained in Somalia and they went back to Nigeria," Mohamud said.

"The terrorists are so linked together, they are associated and so organized, (that) we the world we need to be so organized," he added.

Al-Shabab militants, which have link to al-Qaeda, have frequently staged attacks against government officials and civilians over the past years.  

Boko Haram, on the other hand, has pledged allegiance to the Daesh Takfiri group, which is wreaking havoc in Syria and Iraq.

Boko Haram terrorists have killed more than 1,650 people since the inauguration of Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari in May 2015, and claimed the lives of over 17,000 people since the start of their insurgency in Nigeria in 2009, AFP figures show. They have since forced over 2.6 million others to flee their homes.

FG Sacks Heads Government Owned Media

Nigeria’s federal government has announced the sack of the heads of the six information-related parastatals under the ministry of information and culture.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, announced the disengagement during a meeting he held with the Chief Executives of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), Voice of Nigeria (VON), News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and the National Orientation Agency (NOA) on Monday .

The Minister directed the disengaged Chief Executives to hand over to the most senior officials in their various establishments.

He thanked them for their service to the nation and wished them  "best of luck" in their future endeavours.

The affected Chief Executives are the Directors-General of NTA, Mr. Sola Omole, FRCN (Mr. Ladan Salihu), VON (Mr Sam Worlu), NOA (Mr. Mike Omeri), NBC (Mr. Emeka Mba) and the Managing Director of NAN (Mr. Ima Niboro). 

In a statement made available to this effect by Segun Adeyemi, SA to the minister, he directed the disengaged Chief Executives to hand over to the most senior officials in their various establishments.

Mohammed thanked them for their service to the nation and wished them the best of luck in their future endeavours.

INEC Declares APC Winner Of Adamawa Rerun Election

Announcing the results, the Independent National Electoral Commission  (INEC) constituency returning officer, Dr. Pascal Timtere said  Yohanna of APC polled 24,126 votes, Micheal Zidon of the People Democratic Party (PDP) got 11,513 votes, and Kabiru Garba of the  Citizen Peoples Party (CPP) scored 222 votes.
‎

Others were Bitrus Alkali of the Kowa Party who got 400 votes, Dr. P.P Power of the People Democratic Movement (PDM) scored 6,320 votes while Anslem Olam of Labour Party (LP) scored 154 votes respectively.  

However, Laori, who had defected from SDP to re-contest in KOWA party after his election was annulled, had reportedly secured an injunction from an Abuja Federal High Court, restraining INEC from conducting the election for failure to include his name as the candidate of his new party.

But the Commission’s spokesperson in Adamawa, Rifkatu Dikku, said INEC was not aware of the injunction as they were yet to receive such communication from their national headquarters in Abuja.