Video - TIZETI a solution for Nigeria's internet problem

Necessity, it's said, is the mother of invention. For tech entrepreneur Kendall Ananyi, this couldn't be more accurate. He and a friend set out to establish a video curating company, to become the Netflix of Nigeria. But they lacked fast and affordable Internet services to run their business. Realising the magnitude of the challenge, the two abandoned their initial plan and decided to solve the Internet problem instead.

50 staff members sacked at Nigeria High Commision in London

Over 50 Staff of the Nigerian High Commision London were dismissed and asked to accept a letter dated 22nd of November, 2018, Meanwhile, the Commission claims the dismissal took effect from 1st of January 2018.

The staff of the commission have been working all year (2018) with months of no pay. The letter of termination came due to continual outcry from staff members of the commission demanding their salary arrears.

In the letter signed by Helen Nzeako on behalf of the Nigerian High Commission UK, the termination of employment is as a result of restructuring of the organization and due to budgetary constraints. The staff members of the Commission have received this news in dismay and disappointment as most have served the Federal Government of Nigeria meritoriously. A source alleged that the exercise is a plot by the management to disengage every staff to so as to pave way for them to employ their friends & family members into these positions. The letter of termination or disengagement instructed staff to reapply for the same job if they so wish.

“We want the World to see how we are been ill-treated just because we asked for our salaries. This is so unfair and an injustice to democratic rule”. As quoted by a displaced staff of the commission. However the aggrieved staff are calling on President Muhammadu Buhari, the Federal Government of Nigeria to look into the matter.

Vanguard

Bring Back our Girls activist runs for top office and vows to disrupt 'Nigeria's politics of failure'

Bring Back our Girls activist and former Nigerian minister Oby Ezekwesili has thrown her hat into the election ring for Nigeria's upcoming 2019 elections and says her candidacy will "disrupt the politics of failure" in Africa's most populous nation.

Ezekwesili in an interview with Christiane Amanpour said bad governance had become endemic in Nigeria and citizens no longer hold leaders accountable for corruption or corrupt acts.
"It [Nigerian politics] produced dismal results such that today Nigeria is the world's capital of extreme poverty," she said.

"It's totally unacceptable. What I intend to do is to disrupt this and build a nation that is based on prosperity, stability, cohesion, and equality of opportunities for our people."

Around 87 million Nigerians are living in extreme poverty, according to the 2018 World Poverty Clock, despite the country's vast oil wealth and human capital.

Incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari, who is also running for a second term, vowed to tackle corruption in his first term, a promise many Nigerians say he has not fulfilled.

Ezekwesili, who announced she was running for Nigeria's top office in October, is towing the same path, with a campaign promise to weed out corruption, which she calls a "malignant and cancerous action."

"We know that corruption is a tax on the poor. And we already know there are ways to tackle corruption. You prevent opportunities for corruption; you reduce corruption.

"What my agenda is to deregulate the economy in the kind of way that public officials don't have too much presence in the economy to be able to utilize it for personal gain," she said in the interview.

Anti-corruption campaigner

Ezekwesili is one of the co-founders of Transparency International, a global watchdog fighting corruption. She has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

She leads the Bring Back Our Girls group calling for the safe return of kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by terror group Boko Haram since 2014.

Ezekwesili faces an uphill task as a female presidential candidate, but most significantly, she will be running against incumbent President Buhari and Nigeria's former vice-president Atiku Abubakar in February next year. 

The activist said the candidates' popularity does not faze her and her ambitions to lead the West African nation. Ezekwesili believes she stands out from other candidates.  According to her, leadership is "gender neutral" and she brings "character, competence, and capacity" to the race, she said.  

"I am a better candidate than the men that are in this race, and even they will tell you that. I'm simply going to keep on with the issues that I want to solve and be a problem solver," Ezekwesili told CNN.

Her record of fighting corruption and plugging financial leaks in Nigeria's public sector, when she served as a minister proves she will deliver on her campaign promises, she said.

"I believe I am the candidate of the Nigerian people as I am not running alone. We are all running together. All of us that want a new direction for our country are running together," Ezekwesili said.
"This is a contest between the established class of politicians who have not delivered anything meaningful in governance and the rest of us. I'm simply a candidate who is providing a direction for the rest of society to take on these folks."

Ezekwesili served as Nigeria's minister of education in 2006 where she championed educational reforms to get more girls to attend school, especially in northern Nigeria.

CNN

50 loggers kidnapped by Boko Haram in Nigeria

Boko Haram militants have been kidnapped 50 loggers in north-eastern Nigeria close to the border with Cameroon, the Daily Nation reported on Friday.

The abduction took place at Bulakesa village, 25 kilometres from Gamboru in Borno state.

Gunmen loyal to factional leader, Abubakar Shekau, carried out the abduction of the loggers, who were in a camp for people displaced by jihadist violence, last weekend according to a local militia.

The news took a while to reach the media due to limited communications with residents in the area. Two of the loggers, however, succeeded in escaping and fled home warning others of the kidnapping.

Thousands of people have lost their lives and more than two million have been displaced since Boko Haram’s 2009 uprising. In 2014 Boko Haram gunmen seized 276 girls aged 12 to 17 from a secondary school in the remote town of Chibok, also in Borno state.

Following repeated attacks on loggers, the Nigerian military managed to rid the nearby town of Wulgo and surrounding areas of the militants in 2017.

IOL

Video - Nigerian businessmen on benefits from Chinese Expo

African nations continue to reap benefits following the conclusion of the first China International Import Expo. Many products and services from Africa made their debut in the Chinese market. These have attracted a lot of attention. Exhibitors from Nigeria say the Expo opened a channel for African companies and products looking to enter the Chinese market.