Central Bank of Nigeria issues new 100 Naira digital note

                  

 


 FRONT

                                   




 BACK









The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has unveiled the first digital N100 paper note, to commemorate Nigeria’s Centenary. The new note was unveiled at the Federal Executive Council, FEC, meeting, in a presentation by the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele.

The new note which has features for the visually impaired will be officially issued into circulation on Friday December 19, 2014. The unveiling is part of the series of activities lined up for the eventual injection of the new note into circulation.

On Wednesday, November 19, the new note will be sent to banknote equipment manufacturers and other machine suppliers to enable them adapt to machines and authentication devices.

On November 26, there will be a publication of the new N100 bank note to be sent by the CBN to commercial banks, chamber of commerce, Nigeria Police force, cash in transit companies etc.

On Wednesday December 3, leaflets on the N100 bank note will be sent to 1,000 Point Of Sales (POS) in the country, including a reminder about adapting machines and devices. While on Wednesday, December 17, a film showing how to check the new hundred naira bank note will go live on the CBN YouTube channel.

Explaining the features of the new banknote, Mr. Emefiele said the new note was designed with enhanced security to offer robust resistance against counterfeiting. “We have produced a banknote which is the first of its kind, but most importantly it has been designed and produced with most advanced technologies in the world,” he said.

He noted that in the process of producing the new note, the following was taken into consideration: “Durability, to make it tolerant in tropics and in doing that we introduced a two sided interglow barriers, both at the front and the back. We also made the note attractive for public acceptance. Emphasis was also placed on our rich cultural heritage. The note has a transformational character”.

Explaining the features he said on the front side of the note is a public authentication features, window micro-optics, showing the national flag and numeral100 indicating the value of the denomination and the attainment of the centenary period.

The second is a spark feature of a rolling manilla bar which was the instrument used during the slave trade era. A portrait of Chief Obafemi Awolowo is retained both in the ink, that is the interglow level, as a portrait and also in a paper as a shadow image.

“We made provision on the front for the visually impaired individuals in our midst by having a raised and embossed line,” he said.

At the back side, the CBN introduced a feature called Quick Response Code, QRC. It is a feature that highlights and sources all the information about the centenary. “This makes the note the first digital banknote in the world,” he said.

The QRC is an application found on the smart phone or Ipad. Once the barcode on the back of the note is scanned it shows the President’s face and then comes up with all information on Nigeria’s history. President Goodluck Jonathan thanked the CBN for unveiling the note.

The Coordinating Minister of Economy and minister of finance, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, said introducing the note was a smart move and the feature of the QRC is educative. But she went on to ask how much it will cost to print the notes. The President said this will be discussed when the memo is presented.

Premium Times

Female suicide bomber attacks College in Kontagora, Nigeria

A female suicide bomber blew herself up on Wednesday at a college in Kontagora in Nigeria's central Niger State, close to the capital Abuja, a police spokesman said.

The bomb went off as the woman was trying to enter the college's library, a witness said.
"The female suicide bomber blew herself up before reaching her target," the police spokesman told Reuters by telephone.

Reuters

Related story: 46 students dead by suicide bomb blast during school assembly

The fake ceasefire with Boko Haram

Nigerians were ecstatic on October 17 when the federal government announced a ceasefire deal with Boko Haram. If it had been true, years of ruthless killing of several thousand citizens would have been halted - suddenly - and the over-200 Chibok girls kidnapped seven months ago would have been freed.

Sadly, Boko Haram held out for no longer than half-a-dozen hours before unleashing an attack on Abadam Village in Borno State, killing a resident. Very early the following day, eight people were mowed down in Dzur Village, also in Borno, consequently extinguishing whatever hopes anyone nursed of a ceasefire.

So, within a day of the ceasefire announcement, delirious Nigerians had become crestfallen and had started asking: "Was there really a ceasefire?"

It was not until another two weeks, though, that the leader of the group, Abubakar Shekau, dealt the coup de grace to a peace deal that had quickly gained international traction.

"We have not made ceasefire with anyone. What is our business with negotiation? We did not negotiate with anyone... It's a lie; it's a lie. We will not negotiate," he said in a video released on October 31.

Who duped whom?

I feel little pity for President Goodluck Jonathan over the ceasefire debacle. For a whopping 18 days after Boko Haram struck in Chibok, Jonathan did not believe that an abduction of more than 200 girls indeed took place. He thought it was all a ruse - a propaganda by opponents of his re-election ambition.

And he neither saw the need to visit Chibok nor invite the grieving parents to Abuja. It took the pleading of a 17-year-old, Malala Yousafzai, for Jonathan to agree to meet with parents of the abducted girls "within 24 hours".

So if Jonathan's peace-deal effort is now being misconstrued as a lie, well, it's a taste of his own medicine. But in fairness to him, ceasefire negotiations were ongoing. Just with the wrong Boko Haram representatives.

In July and August, "Boko Haram commanders" wrote letters to the president of Chad, Idriss Deby Itno, himself a former rebel leader and well-decorated military officer, asking him to broker a ceasefire with Lagos.

It is a mystery what Alex Badeh, an air chief marshal and chief of defence staff, and Mike Omeri, coordinator of the National Information Centre (set up strictly to disseminate information relating to the insurgency) were thinking on October 17 when they gathered journalists together to tell them Boko Haram had announced a ceasefire.

"Already, the terrorists have announced a ceasefire in furtherance of their desire for peace," Omeri said gleefully. "In this regard, the government of Nigeria has, in similar vein, declared a ceasefire."

Exactly 10 days later, Aminu Wali, minister of foreign affairs, assured journalists that the ceasefire was intact.

"Boko Haram are saying that those ones [attacks] were done by other rogues and criminals," he said after meeting with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.

It was therefore shocking to hear Godswill Akpabio, governor of Akwa Ibom State and one of Jonathan's staunchest allies, blame the media for the post-ceasefire confusion. Tragic. Uncharitable. To be sure, Akpabio was speaking for the government and for Sambo Dasuki, the president's national security adviser (NSA).

"The NSA was of the opinion that high level contact with the Republic of Chad was made ... and of course, no agreement has been reached yet. It is just that the press probably misunderstood what was reported. The discussions are ongoing," he said.

According to journalist Ahmad Salkida, who has a close understanding of Boko Haram and its ideology, Danladi Ahmadu - the man who supposedly represented Boko Haram in the negotiations - would never have been chosen into the Shura (ruling council) of the terrorists because the name "Danladi" (meaning "born on a Sunday" - Christians' holy day) is "filthy" to the sect's Islamic orientations.

In short, it is clear that the government communicated with a powerless negotiator and most likely an impostor.

The announcement of what has turned out to be a phantom ceasefire is a gaffe Nigeria must learn from, especially the media and the military. The media must be discharging its reportorial responsibilities with stiffer scrutiny.

Clearly, it is not enough for the government to declare that "terrorists have announced a ceasefire". Who announced it on behalf of the terrorists? Where was it announced? How, too? And what was proof that it was the decision of the Boko Haram hierarchy - not just a minority? Those were unanswered questions that should have been raised to temper the public optimism that followed the announcement.

With Nigeria's main opposition party consistently haranguing and pillorying Jonathan for failing to halt Boko Haram, the president's men were desperate to polish his image ahead of the 2015 poll. The faintest hint of a ceasefire would work magic; it had to be announced to the media at once - even if prematurely. Looking back, the media was duped, and so were the people, in turn.

Salkida warned early on that "the government is more interested in shadows and bubbles than in substance". Few paid attention, it seems.

And so we are back to square one, having to deal with the disastrous strategy of the Nigerian military which has extended and broadened the conflict rather than curbed it.

Aljazeera

Related stories: Boko Haram agrees to ceasefire

Boko Haram kidnap more women after Nigerian government announce ceasefire

Boko Haram captures more territory in Adamawa as Nigerian forces flee

The Boko Haram on Monday expanded the territory it controls in Adamawa when it captured the town of Maiha, residents have told PREMIUM TIMES.

Maiha is about 25 kilometres from Mubi, the commercial town captured by the insurgents in Adamawa last week. Maiha is also about 200km from Yola, the state capital.

Even before the town fell to the insurgents, it was already a shadow of itself as commercial and social activities were paralyzed. People were already leaving the town due to its proximity to Mubi.

Fleeing residents said they saw many soldiers running away from the area with some of them hitch-hiking in residents’ vehicles. The soldiers told the residents that if the insurgents caught up with them, it would lead to instant death.

“The insurgents started trooping into the town around 2:30 p.m. and engaged troops stationed at Kosha before advancing to the main town of Maiha,” a fleeing resident, Kabir Musa, said in a telephone interview. “The soldiers, who advanced to the area in their bid to recapture Mubi, started running away as the insurgents overran the entire town.”

Another resident of the town, Garba Baba, said some fleeing soldiers begged him to assist them with civilian clothes so they would not be traced by the insurgents. The soldiers, he said, even threw their guns into the bush.

“The fleeing soldiers asked us to give them our clothes so that they can camouflage and escape from the area safely as some of them discarded their weapons in the bush. A lot of the discarded weapons are currently lying in the bush,” Mr. Baba, who also fled Maiha, said.

He said in a similar situation to when the insurgents captured Mubi, they did not encounter any challenge from the Nigerian troops.

“The insurgents did not encounter any challenge as they stormed the town in APC’s and Toyota Hilux vans firing shots into the soldiers’ directions chanting Allahu Akbar,” Mr. Baba said.

“The Boko Haram insurgents had ordered us not to run, saying that they are not after civilians but soldiers and other security people.’’ Another resident still trapped in Maiha, Dauda Mallam, said, “Many of the residents fled into the bush, particularly soldiers. Some of them may have been killed by bullets.

“The insurgents also hoisted their flags in strategic places in the town.” A soldier of the 23rd Armoured Brigade, Yola, also told PREMIUM TIMES that “we just heard that the insurgents had attacked our men in their base near Maiha town, and some soldiers were killed in a gun battle. We are yet to get full details.”

The military is yet to officially react to the Maiha takeover in Adamawa, which like Borno and Yobe, has been under a state of emergency since last year. The emergency rule has not deterred insurgents from carrying out terrorist activities leading to the death of thousands of people.
Several soldiers including senior officers are currently being investigated and disciplined for fleeing battles with insurgents.

On Monday, the Nigerian government, apparently frustrated by its inability to check the Boko Haram insurgency, accused the U.S. of not doing enough to assist the country.

Nigeria’s Ambassador to the United States, Ade Adefuye, expressed the government’s view when he received a delegation of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations.

“I am sad to inform you that the Nigerian leadership: military and political, and even the general populace, are not satisfied with the scope, nature and content of the United States’ support for us in our struggle against terrorists,” Mr. Adefuye said.

“We find it difficult to understand how and why in spite of the U.S. presence in Nigeria with their sophisticated military technology, Boko Haram should be expanding and becoming more deadly.

Premium Times

Related stories: 12 Nigerian soldiers sentenced to death for mutiny

Some Nigerian soldiers refuse to fight Boko Haram until given new weapons

Nigerian government dissapointed with America's refusal to sell them weapons

The Nigerian government has expressed its sadness over the United States refusal to sell military weapons to Nigeria in order fight against terrorism in the country, Empowered Newswire reports.

Nigerian Ambassador to the United States, Professor Ade Adefuye speaking on Monday while receiving a delegation of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations expressed disappointment.

“I am sad to inform you that the Nigerian leadership: military and political, and even the general populace, are not satisfied with the scope, nature and content of the United States’ support for us in our struggle against terrorists.”

“We find it difficult to understand how and why in spite of the U.S. presence in Nigeria with their sophisticated military technology, Boko Haram should be expanding and becoming more deadly”.

“The U.S. Government has up till today refused to grant Nigeria’s request to purchase lethal equipment that would have brought down the terrorists within a short time on the basis of the allegations that Nigeria’s defence forces have been violating human rights of Boko Haram suspects when captured or arrested.”

The Nigerian ambassador who has urged the Council on Foreign Affairs to put pressure on the US State Department and the US Department of Defence to re-examine the basis of their refusal to sell equipment to Nigeria said: “A stable and secure Nigeria is an invaluable asset to America,” Mr. Adefuye said.

Osun Defender

Related stories: Nigeria threatens South Africa over arms deal

Another secret arms deal between Nigerian and South Africa goes awry - $5.7 million seized