Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has sacked the head of the country’s budget office just six months into a four-year term.
Yahaya Gusau, the director general of Nigeria’s budget office, will be replaced by Tijjani Abdullahi, a statement from the Nigerian presidency said on Monday. Gusau was appointed in August 2015 for a term of four years but has overseen a period of controversy surrounding the 2016 budget, which was presented by Buhari in December 2015.
No official reason was given for Gusau’s dismissal. Abdullahi, a former banker, will be assisted by Ben Ifeanyi Akabueze, who was appointed as special advisor on planning to the minister of budget and national planning, Udoma Udo Udoma.
Buhari proposed to raise spending by 20 percent in 2016 to a record 6.1 trillion naira ($31 billion) in a bid to help Nigeria rebound from the plummeting price of oil, which makes up more than a third of the country’s GDP. The budget, however, is yet to be approved by the Nigerian National Assembly (NA) after suffering repeated delays. Copies of the budget document reportedly went missing from the Nigerian Senate in January, delaying deliberations on the budget.
Buhari later wrote to the NA to say that the original document contained errors and submitted corrections. Nigerian civic groups have alleged that the budget has been padded out as certain ministries seek to increase their allowances, with examples including 795 million naira ($4 million) being set aside to update the website of an unnamed ministry and 10 billion naira ($50.3 million) in the education ministry’s spending plan having no allocated purpose, Bloomberg reported on Monday.
Buhari has launched a crackdown on graft since being inaugurated as Nigerian president in May 2015. Several high-profile figures, including former National Security Advisor Sambo Dasuki, have been arrested in connection with an arms scandal in which $2.1 billion of government fundsearmarked for buying arms to fight Boko Haram went missing. The president of the Nigerian senate, Bukola Saraki, is also facing trial for corruption offenses. The country’s anti-graft agency has also recovered more than $2 trillion of stolen public funds since 2003, according to Abubakar Malami, the Nigerian attorney general and justice minister.
Yet Nigerians still appear to perceive their government as corrupt. A December 2015 report by corruption watchdog Transparency International found that 75 percent of Nigerians believed thatgovernment corruption had increased over the previous 12 months.
Newsweek
Tuesday, February 16, 2016
Monday, February 15, 2016
Video - Nigeria to increase oil production to 2.5 million barrels per day
Nigeria's Minister of State for Petroleum Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, has announced plans to increase crude output to up to 2.5 million barrels per day by the end of 2016. The government has made reforming the oil sector a priority as a slump in oil prices hammers the country's economy. Nigeria's oil and gas output has been relatively stagnant as big offshore projects have been held up by much-delayed government funding and uncertainty over fiscal terms.
Blackberry launches android operated phones in Nigeria
While PRIV will provide a choice in operating system to new and existing customers, the phone maker said that it remains committed to the BlackBerry 10 operating system, and will continue to release platform updates focused on security and privacy enhancements.
Combining the best of BlackBerry’s productivity, security and privacy features with the wide world of Google Play store apps, PRIV is the epitome of form and function.
The smart device , according to the phone maker has been engineered with the world’s finest technology and packaged in an ultra-thin device including a dual-curved screen, touch and physical keyboards, state-of-the-art 18MP camera, and long-lasting battery – with unique tools that allow users to manage and control their privacy.
New standard for the slider form factor
As part of BlackBerry’s cross-platform strategy to provide a greater choice of secure solutions to its customers, with the product, users will see a seamless merging of key BlackBerry 10 productivity features like the BlackBerry Hub and BlackBerry Calendar into PRIV. Additional key features include:
Keyboards
The smart device offers the freedom to choose between a virtual keyboard or a physical keyboard for speed and accuracy.
Tough and beautiful screen
A stunning 5.4-inch immersive dual-curve OLED display offers plenty of room to work or play with rich colors, deep black levels and less power consumption. At a resolution of 2560×1440, it sports an incredible pixel density of 540 PPI – 4x the amount of pixels of a standard HDTV. Along the screen’s curved edge is the Productivity Tab that provides an “at a glance” view of the most pertinent info from BlackBerry Hub, Calendar, Task, and Contacts.
Battery life
PRIV has a 3410 mAh battery with enough power to work up to 22.5 straight hours of mixed usage*.
Camera
Engineered to deliver professional looking photos with minimal effort, an 18MP camera, certified by Schneider-Kreuznach , integrates technologies commonly found in DSLR cameras.
Performance and expandable storage
PRIV is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor, a premium-tier chipset designed to offer consumers a superior and compelling user experience along with peace of mind with Qualcomm SecureMSM technology and Qualcomm Snapdragon StudioAccess content protection. Plus, with 32 GB of onboard storage and support for micro SD cards up to 2TB, the new PRIV gives users the flexibility to add affordable and hot-swappable storage to download, install, capture and share as their needs evolve.
Natural sound
PRIV comes with powerful speakers and a three-microphone system that delivers a high-quality listening experience. BlackBerry natural sound technology is built in to adapt Wi-Fi and cellular call sound depending upon phone position and background noise, automatically adjusting volume so users don’t have to.
Android for work
PRIV comes ready for work. Android for Work support allows for fast, simple and secure integration with the enterprise environment. Seamless integration with Google Play for Work enables easy access to IT-managed apps.
Security and privacy
PRIV was designed with security at its core, building on BlackBerry’s legacy of security and keeping private its customers’ data. Security highlights include: Advanced privacy controls
The exclusive DTEK by BlackBerry app for Android monitors and reports on application access to the microphone, camera, location and personal information, enabling users to be confident that their personal data is being kept private. Users can know at a glance when their privacy could be at risk so they can take action to improve it.
Secure hardware
BlackBerry’s hardware root of trust, a unique manufacturing process, injects cryptographic keys into the device hardware, providing a secure foundation for the entire platform.
Verified boot and secure bootchain
Keys have been embedded to verify every layer of the device from hardware to OS to applications in order to make sure they haven’t been tampered with. Additionally, thousands of modifications were made to harden the Linux kernel with numerous patches and configuration changes to improve security.
Fully supported on BlackBerry’s EMM solution
PRIV can be integrated with our leading EMM solution, BES 12, which offers cross-platform management of PRIV and other devices; providing a full end to end security solution and secure collaboration applications for business users like Secusuite for secure voice and WatchDox for secure file sharing.
Vanguard
Nigeria Minister of Petroleum Kachikwu says he loses $1m a year for serving Nigeria
Speaking in Abuja, Kachikwu who is also the Group Managing Director, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), revealed that his acceptance to serve the country cost him “at least a million dollars every year.”
According to him, all hands must be on deck to build enduring institutions that would secure the future of the country and improve on the standard of living of Nigerians.
“I believe that this country needs help. I believe that it is about time we began to perform for the young and upcoming. I believe that the sheer capacity of this country is unimaginable. I do not know of any country in the world with our population, our resources, our intellect, our flamboyance, our family nexus, everything is together.
“The call to public service for me was unique. I was Vice President of Exxon Mobil West Africa and I was suddenly called to serve.
“In serving, I lose a lot of money, if not at least a million dollars every year by virtue of being a minister, but the thing is, I am directed by the voice of God,” he said.
Kachikwu said the current economic crunch in Nigeria can be surmounted with the right leadership.
He said Nigerians would not feel the impact of the challenges posed by drop in the price of oil if government properly harnessed other natural resources.
“Everything in this country is together; the only thing that is not together is leadership and in God’s name, we are bound to change that.
“In every little space that you have, and in my own case petroleum, you have to make an absolute change and so I am not worried about price of oil.
“It can be five dollars for all I care. I am worried about the direction of the industry; I am worried about changing things the way they have never been done before.
“I am worried about creating opportunities that exist; I am worried about improving the standards of living; I am worried about encouraging opportunities in the sector.
“I am worried about opening up those opportunities that have existed for years,” he said.
Kachikwu called on Nigerians to embrace the new philosophy of the present administration geared towards charting a new course for the country.
He called on Nigerians to bury their differences and contribute their quota to the development of the country.
Guardian
Friday, February 12, 2016
Girl defies Boko Haram and refuses to carry out suicide bombing
Strapped with a booby-trapped vest and sent by the extremist Boko Haram group to kill as many people as possible, a young teenage girl tore off the explosives and fled as soon as she was out of sight of her handlers.
Her two companions, however, completed their grisly mission earlier this week and walked into a crowd of hundreds at Dikwa refugee camp in northeast Nigeria and blew themselves up, killing 58 people.
Later found by local self-defence forces, the girl's tearful account is one of the first indications that at least some of the child bombers used by Boko Haram are aware that they are about to die and kill others.
"She said she was scared because she knew she would kill people. But she was also frightened of going against the instructions of the men who brought her to the camp," said Modu Awami, a self-defence fighter who helped question the girl.
She was among thousands held captive for months by the extremists, according to Algoni Lawan, a spokesman for the Ngala local government area that has many residents at the camp and who is privy to information about her interrogation by security forces.
"She confessed to our security operatives that she was worried if she went ahead and carried out the attack that she might kill her own father, who she knew was in the camp," he told The Associated Press on Thursday.
The girl tried to persuade her companions to abandon the mission, he said, "but she said she could not convince the two others to change their minds."
Her story was corroborated when she led soldiers to the unexploded vest, Awami said Thursday, speaking by phone from the refugee camp, which holds 50,000 people who have fled Boko Haram's Islamic uprising.
Captives turned into weapons
The girl is in custody and has given officials information about other planned bombings that has helped them increase security at the camp, said Satomi Ahmed, chairman of the Borno State Emergency Management Agency.
The United States on Thursday strongly condemned the bombings. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the U.S. remains committed to assisting those afflicted by the conflict and supports efforts to provide greater protection for civilians and the regional fight against terrorism.
Boko Haram's six-year-old Islamic insurgency has killed 20,000 people, made 2.5 million homeless and spread across Nigeria's borders.
The extremists have kidnapped thousands of people and the increasing number of suicide bombings by girls and children have raised fears they are turning some captives into weapons. An army bomb disposal expert has told the AP that some suicide bombs are detonated remotely, so the carriers may not have control over when the bomb goes off.
The latest atrocity blamed on Boko Haram extremists was committed against people who had been driven from their homes by the insurgents and had spent a year across the border in Cameroon.
Some 12,000 of them had only returned to Nigeria in January when soldiers declared the area safe. The scene of the killings is 50 kilometres from the border with Cameroon and 85 kilometres northeast of Maiduguri, the biggest city in the northeast and birthplace of Boko Haram.
Such attacks make it difficult for the government to persuade people to return home. The extremists have also razed homes and businesses, destroyed wells and boreholes and stolen livestock and seed grains that farmers need to start their life again.
CBC
Her two companions, however, completed their grisly mission earlier this week and walked into a crowd of hundreds at Dikwa refugee camp in northeast Nigeria and blew themselves up, killing 58 people.
Later found by local self-defence forces, the girl's tearful account is one of the first indications that at least some of the child bombers used by Boko Haram are aware that they are about to die and kill others.
"She said she was scared because she knew she would kill people. But she was also frightened of going against the instructions of the men who brought her to the camp," said Modu Awami, a self-defence fighter who helped question the girl.
She was among thousands held captive for months by the extremists, according to Algoni Lawan, a spokesman for the Ngala local government area that has many residents at the camp and who is privy to information about her interrogation by security forces.
"She confessed to our security operatives that she was worried if she went ahead and carried out the attack that she might kill her own father, who she knew was in the camp," he told The Associated Press on Thursday.
The girl tried to persuade her companions to abandon the mission, he said, "but she said she could not convince the two others to change their minds."
Her story was corroborated when she led soldiers to the unexploded vest, Awami said Thursday, speaking by phone from the refugee camp, which holds 50,000 people who have fled Boko Haram's Islamic uprising.
Captives turned into weapons
The girl is in custody and has given officials information about other planned bombings that has helped them increase security at the camp, said Satomi Ahmed, chairman of the Borno State Emergency Management Agency.
The United States on Thursday strongly condemned the bombings. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the U.S. remains committed to assisting those afflicted by the conflict and supports efforts to provide greater protection for civilians and the regional fight against terrorism.
Boko Haram's six-year-old Islamic insurgency has killed 20,000 people, made 2.5 million homeless and spread across Nigeria's borders.
The extremists have kidnapped thousands of people and the increasing number of suicide bombings by girls and children have raised fears they are turning some captives into weapons. An army bomb disposal expert has told the AP that some suicide bombs are detonated remotely, so the carriers may not have control over when the bomb goes off.
The latest atrocity blamed on Boko Haram extremists was committed against people who had been driven from their homes by the insurgents and had spent a year across the border in Cameroon.
Some 12,000 of them had only returned to Nigeria in January when soldiers declared the area safe. The scene of the killings is 50 kilometres from the border with Cameroon and 85 kilometres northeast of Maiduguri, the biggest city in the northeast and birthplace of Boko Haram.
Such attacks make it difficult for the government to persuade people to return home. The extremists have also razed homes and businesses, destroyed wells and boreholes and stolen livestock and seed grains that farmers need to start their life again.
CBC
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