Operatives of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Nasarawa State have repelled an attempted attack on its state Command in Lafia by suspected bandits.

The Command’s Public Relations Officer, Jerry Victor, who confirmed the development to LEADERSHIP in Lafia, said the attack occurred in the wee hours of Monday at about 3am.

Victor said the attackers came in their large numbers and attempted to break into the facility.

He explained that operatives of the Command on surveillance noticed the movement and alerted their colleagues and a gun duel ensued.

The spokesman said due to superior firepower of the NSCDC men, the suspected bandits beat a retreat and escaped.

He disclosed that the attack might be connected to a bid to released other suspected bandits who are in detention.

The spokesperson further revealed that five notorious suspects were being detained by the Command for various crimes including two informants in the kidnap of an 82-year-old father of a former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Daniel Umaru Lagi.

The victim was killed by his abductors after payment of ransom recently.

The NSCDC’s image maker in the state also noted that the gunmen who came in large numbers with iron rods attempted to break some part of the Command’s fence to gain entry into the facility while some of them took different positions around the building.
He, however, said no casualty was recorded during the gun battle between the attackers and operatives while assuring that calm has since been restored.

Victor added that the Command has in response to the incident, increased surveillance while also fortifying the headquarters with more personnel to forestall any attack in the future.

Our correspondent reports that the rise in kidnap incidents within the state capital has led to imposition of curfew, restricting movement of motorcycles and tricycles recently.

[Leadership]

The Reverend in charge of Ibara Baptist Church, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Dr Timothy Olatunbosun, has expressed concern that many Nigerian fathers are not given the honour and celebration they deserved despite their relentless efforts at providing and securing the family.

“They are dying in silence”, Olatunbosun said, on Sunday, in his sermon, titled ‘Fathers Are Superheroes.’

The Sunday service coincided with this year’s Father’s Day celebration.

The cleric said fathers sacrifice for the family, offer unconditional love, provide security, wise guidance and teach children the way to go, yet they are not celebrated.

He said the present crop of youths are the worst culprits.

“Everything is about their family and family will still look at them as if they have not done anything.

“Why do we say this, when a child is telling the father what have you done that nobody has ever done? What have you done?. And that is the language of this generation, please this young generation be careful.

“Some of you don’t appreciate the labour of your father, the labour of your parents, and your guardians. If you do not appreciate it, by the time it gets to your turn, it will become worse because you never prepared for it,” Olatubosun said.

He, however, said some fathers have not been leaving up to their responsibilities in the society.

He turned to the congregation and asked: how many of you, the youths, want to be like your fathers? There was a silence in the congregation.

The clergyman said no child will like to emulate a father who is a drinkard and or fraudaters.

He urged fathers to be role models to their children in order to build and develop a better Nigeria.

[DailyTrust]

The Police have stationed armed operatives at the secretariats of four local government councils in Rivers State following the expiration of the tenure of LG chairmen in the state.

DAILY POST reports that police vans are currently positioned at the entrances of Port Harcourt City, Obio/Akpor, Ahoada East and Ogu/Bolo LGAs.

Earlier, youths in Degema and Asari/Toru LGAs occupied their respective council secretariats in protest against the extension of the tenure of the LG chairmen.

The youths were seen in viral videos on social media chanting solidarity songs in support of those Governor Siminalayi Fubara is expected to appoint to manage the local councils on a temporary basis.

The outgoing LG chairmen, who are loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike, had their tenure extended by an amended Local Government Law Number 5 of 2018 by the faction of the State House of Assembly headed by Martins Amaewhule.

However, the extension was nullified by a Rivers State High Court ruling on May 21, 2024, which declared the Local Government Law No. 2 of 2024 as inconsistent with the 1999 Constitution.

Despite the court’s ruling, the chairman of Ikwerre LGA, Samuel Nwanosike, has vowed to remain in office.

Two LG chairmen from Bonny and Opobo/Nkoro, who are loyal to Fubara, celebrated the expiration of their tenures with a thanksgiving service on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Fubara has yet to release an official list of Caretaker Committee Chairmen to manage the affairs of the various LGAs following the tenure expiration.

[DailyPost]

The presidential candidate of Labour Party in the 2023 general election, Peter Obi said the spate of kidnapping and demand for ransoms in foreign currency has allegedly worsened socio-economic implications for the country.

Obi stated this in a statement via his X handle on Sunday.

He also expressed sadness over the kidnap of the Managing Director of Fouani Company, Mohamed Fouani, alongside other three Lebanese, in  Lagos.

Obi lamented that insecurity had continued to rage through the country, causing severe economic instability and threatening the national existence.

He also condemned the reported attack on Dudun Doki village of Gwadabawa local government area of Sokoto State, where gunmen killed over ten people and abducted many.

The former Anambra State Governor said the country must strive to put an end to the terror attacks and the attendant loss of lives.

Obi said, “Again, insecurity has continued to rage through the country, causing severe economic instability and threatening our national existence.

“I was saddened to hear about the kidnap of the Managing Director of Fouani Company, Mohamed Fouani, alongside other three Lebanese, in  Lagos.

“The use of boats for kidnap, and demand for ransoms in foreign currency, marks a new and more ugly dimension to the heightened insecurity we are combatting with, and have worsening socio-economic implications.

“Similarly, today, which is supposed to be a holy day, it was also reported that gunmen attacked Dudun Doki village of Gwadabawa local government area of Sokoto State, killing over ten people and abducting many.

“We must strive to put an end to these terror attacks and the attendant loss of lives. I continue to urge that more concerted efforts be made to safely rescue Mr Fouani and other many abductees, from the hands of their captors.

“I also encourage the government, and the security agencies, to employ more stringent measures against insecurity in our country. May Almighty Allah accept our prayers for our nation on this day, show us mercy and intervene in our situation.”

[EagleOnline]

Story Highlights  

• African Union ministers have endorsed a Continental Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy for digital transformation across Africa. 
• The strategy aims to promote Africa’s AI capabilities and ensure inclusive development. 
• This initiative aligns with AU Agenda 2063 and will be submitted for final adoption by the AU Executive Council in July 2024. 

African ICT and Communications Ministers of the African Union (AU) said they have unanimously endorsed a “Continental Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy” and “African Digital Compact” to accelerate “Africa’s digital transformation” by unlocking the potential of the new digital technologies in Nigeria and other African countries. 

This was disclosed in a statement published on AU’s official website on Monday, June 17, 2024. 

Over 130 African ministers and experts virtually convened between June 11 to 13, 2024 for the AU 2nd Extraordinary session of the Specialized Technical Committee on Communication and ICT. 

The meeting aimed at igniting digital transformation across the continent amidst rapid evolutions in the sector fueled by artificial intelligence (AI) technology and applications. 

Continental Strategy 

According to the statement, the Continental AI Strategy guides for African countries to harness artificial intelligence to meet the continent’s development aspirations and the well-being of its people. 

It seeks to promote AI’s ethical use, minimizing potential risks, leveraging opportunities and particularly canvassing for African content and context to be featured in the AI governance structures. 

“Identifying key priorities and actions to ensure that Africa fully benefits from the huge opportunities AI offers, the strategy calls for Africa-owned, people-centered, development-oriented, and inclusive approach to accelerate African countries’ AI capabilities in infrastructure, talent, datasets, innovation, and partnerships while also ensuring adequate safeguards and protection from threats. 

“The Strategy sets the roadmap for African countries to harness the potential of AI to achieve developmental aspirations to education and skills, health, agriculture, infrastructure, peace and security and good governance by developing human capital, strengthening research and innovation ecosystems, and building an AI-ready institutional and regulatory environment to ensure AI works for African people.” 

Africa’s success in the global AI arena 

At the ministerial session, the African Union Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy,  Dr. Amani Abou-Zeid explained that in other to guarantee Africa’s success in the global AI arena, African countries should  invest in its youths, innovators, computer scientists, data experts, and AI researchers. 

The Commissioner commended the endorsement of the strategy, stating if followed by relevant stakeholders, Africa’s diversity would be captured in AI systems. 

“Adapting AI to African realities is critical. AI systems should be able to reflect our diversity, languages, culture, history, and geographical contexts. As we aim to create an inclusive AI ecosystem and a competitive African AI market that is adapted to our realities and meets our ambitions, we believe examining and approving this strategy will provide a common vision and path to accelerate responsible AI innovation and adoption in Africa”.   

“For us Africans, Artificial Intelligence presents tremendous opportunities. It is a driving force for positive transformational positive change as well as economic growth and social progress,” Dr. Abou-Zeid said as quoted in the statement. 

Lending his voice, the Minister of Information, Communications, Science Technology, and Innovation of the Kingdom of Lesotho, and Chair of the Bureau of the technical committee, Ms. Nthati Moorsi emphasised the huge opportunities that stem from the adoption of AI-enabled systems to promote homegrown solutions. 

The minister was of the view that the AI strategy would stimulate economic growth and sustainable development towards achieving the priorities outlined in the AU Agenda 2063 and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. 

What you should know 

 The meeting  is a follow-up on the AU’s call for developing countries to have increased representation and influence within global Artificial Intelligence(AI) governance structures. 

Nairametrics previously reported that the AU Mission to the United Nations (UN), had disclosed this during a Special meeting of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), a month ago. 

This endorsed strategy is expected to constitute Africa’s contribution to the Global Digital Compact and the United Nations Summit of the Future in September 2024.  

The committee will submit the strategy to the African Union Executive Council in July 2024, for consideration and final adoption in line with AU rules and regulations. 

The development is coming after a pan-African telecom company, MTN Group, and Huawei Technologies collaborated to build a technology innovation lab aimed at accelerating digital transformation and sustainable development across Africa. 

The Nigerian government is also looking forward to digital transformation across the nation 

Some months back, Nigeria’s Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, visited SecureID Limited state-of-the-art facilities, commending the firm’s role in Nigeria’s digital transformation. 

[Nairametrics]

The University of Ibadan is 75 years old. Chief Bisi Akande celebrated his 85th birthday on January 16 this year. He was made Secretary to Oyo State Government 45 years ago at the age of 40. He was Deputy Governor of Oyo State 42 years ago. He was elected Osun State Governor in 1999 – 25 years ago. He left the office of governor 21 years ago. Last Friday, the 85-year-old man was appointed by President Bola Tinubu to serve the University of Ibadan as its pro-chancellor and chairman of council. When you heard Chief Akande’s name as the appointee, you were almost as sure as I was that the old warrior would reject it in a jiffy. I told myself that he would tell his friend, the president, that his choice for UI’s top job must be an error; that only today’s hound can successfully chase today’s hare. But today is Monday – four days after, Chief Bisi Akande has not rejected the ‘juicy’ job. We have no business rejecting it for him.

An elephant chooses how he wants the forest to address him. If you schooled at the same time as I did, you must have read the poem ‘Salute to the Elephant’. It is there that you meet Elephant – “possessor of a savings-basket full of money” who is “huge as a hill, even in a crouching posture.” The Elephant is that mighty one “who carries mortar and yet walks with a swaggering gait…, animal treading ponderously.” The Elephant, more importantly, is that “mountainous animal, (the) huge beast who tears a man like a garment and hangs him up on a tree.” The sight of the Elephant, the chanter-hunter says, “causes people to stampede towards a hill of safety.” Now, imagine that elephant coming down from the height of his high reputation to mingle with deers in a scavenge-rush for forbs. An elephant would do that if it does not see itself as an elephant. It is his choice. I am not qualified to tell this chief’s elephant not to eat what common goats eat. But if I were his son, I would beg him to say “no, thank you.”

Chief Akande is not alone on that geriatric podium of self-diminution. With him is General Ike Omar Sanda Nwachukwu (Rtd) who was made chairman of the University of Nigeria governing council. The University of Nigeria is 69 years old. It was founded in 1955 but formally opened on October 7, 1960. General Nwachukwu will be 84 years old on September 1, this year. He has been everything anyone would ever want to be in Nigeria. As a soldier, he rose to be Major-General and General Officer Commanding. He was governor of Imo State 40 years ago. He was Minister of Labour 39 years ago. He was Foreign Affairs Minister 34 years ago. He was elected senator 25 years ago. He is back from the bench in this season of renewed past.

Must it be them? Don’t they have around them, in their political party, sleek-headed younger people with knowledge and ideas who can handle these assignments? They have them, but those ones are useful only as aides and as bag carriers.

Writing in May last year for US’ satire newspaper, The Onion, grand old Dianne Feinstein satirized America as “an out-of-touch gerontocracy” where “the average age of a senator is 65” – and the president eighty-something years old. She said she was “glad” not to live and get stuck in that country of “dementia-addled” leaders “who keep a stranglehold on power” and “who prioritise their own careers and bank accounts over the common good.” Then she wondered, angrily “how selfish you’d have to be to cling to power when you’ve long since ceased to understand the needs of ordinary people.” I will be shocked if I am the only one who thinks strongly that Feinstein wrote about Nigeria of today.

I read a sonnet of William Shakespeare where he deplores “age” staying “too long.” In his ‘The Passionate Pilgrim’, Shakespeare explains why “crabbed age and youth cannot live together.” Shakespeare sings of “Youth like summer brave, age like winter bare.” He says “Youth is full of sport, age’s breath is short; Youth is nimble, age is lame; Youth is hot and bold, age is weak and cold; Youth is wild, and age is tame…” Yet, our country’s vote is for the old and cold; the lame, the tame.

We have more of them. Our universities are now a rest home for the ancient. There is also 72-year-old Alhaji Yayale Ahmed who was announced as the chairman of 62-year-old Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He was appointed Head of Service of the Federation in the year 2000 – 24 years ago. He occupied that post for seven years, retiring in 2007 to be appointed as the Minister of Defence. He left the office of minister in September 2008 to be appointed as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. He held sway there till May 2011. He left thirteen years ago. He is back from retirement to preside over ABU’s highest governing body.

These king-size men and others on that long list will be interfacing with a 70-year-old minister. Professor Tahir Mamman is our minister of education. If he had remained in the university system, he would be due for retirement in three weeks’ time. The minister reports to a president who is officially 72 years old. Essentially, these 20th century men are the drivers of the 21st century vision of Nigeria’s knowledge industry. That is the way we roll. The National Universities Commission (NUC) regulates Nigeria’s university system. Who is NUC’s substantive executive secretary? Check if it has. And, who presides over its board? As I write this today, Sunday, 16 June, 2024, the commission in charge of our universities has on its website, Emeritus Professor Ayo Banjo as the chairman of its board. Baba Professor Banjo died last month – he was 90 years old. NUC has not remembered to update its website to reflect that fact – or it is reluctant to let go of the late Professor Banjo.

Beyond the dead, shall we ask the new octogenarian appointees where they hope to start from in this digital age? With their appointments, Nigeria is asking its Gen Z students to use fatigued eyes of tired men to prepare their journey into the future. May God help them.

A leader must know when to say enough to seeking power. Someone (I can’t get their name) said knowing when to walk away is wisdom. He also said being able to walk away is courage. Yet, there is a third line: walking away with your head held high is dignity. Why would an eighty-something-year-old man want to be a baggage carrier – porter – to the youth of his land? Someone said it is the love of service. I replied that it is simply a case of an Egungun, because of perks, dancing itself into irrelevance.

Apart from them being his friends, are there patriotic reasons why the president posted these men to those schools? We may not know the real reason why our president made those geriatric choices – unless he tells us. Raul Magni Berton and Sophie Panel in 2017 did a paper on why non-democratic systems produce older leaders. They postulate that leaders’ “ruling styles” are “partly shaped by the rules that brought them to power.” They ask why anyone, even the old, would want to be ruled by aged people. They dissect types and motives of gerontocratic rule. They say “the selection of aging leaders based on premeditated considerations” is the definition of strategic gerontocracy. They contrast this with what they call ‘taste’ gerontocracy “which is based on genuine preference for old leaders”. They speak on ‘skills’ gerontocracy which assumes that the chosen had “specific skills acquired with age.” What special skills do our eighty-something-year-old ‘chairmen’ have that recommended them for our universities as pro-chancellors? Tinubu is not known to be a wine connoisseur who flaunts the old as the better. So, I wonder why the president loves old stuff – old, fossilized national anthem and aged administrators.

This government’s choice of yesterday’s men for today’s work has natural consequences. You know menopause, its complications and implications. That is what the University of Ibadan, UNN and ABU and some others in their geriatric shoes are now married to. Escaping the schools’ climacteric suitors and their creaky beds looks futile. When Humphrey Hawksley wrote his 2009 book, ‘Democracy Kills’, he probably had our case in mind. There is hardly anything which today’s democracy inherited that it has not fed to the dogs. While we fantasised on what the textbook says democracy is, the leaders have unitised the benefits in it; they’ve warehoused the gains in their family silos – for the comfort of their generations and for their friends’.

I am wasting my time writing this. The same applies to you raising complaints about how our planes are being run aground. The government does not care about the public and its opinion. You can’t blame it. There is a problem with winning all bouts all the time. It intoxicates the winner, making them look down on the street and disdainful of even their fans. “At being humble, I’m the greatest”. A Minnesota, United States mother in about 1970, was horrified to hear her young wrestler-son say this as he recorded wins after wins. The woman described that statement of her son as “silly” – but that was hubris at work. We read such ‘humility’ in the insults the Nigerian leadership rolls out almost daily. Everything points at the end of sanity in the conduct of our affairs. Yet, long before this present darkness, there had been eras of rationality and hope. There had been an age when leaders insulted not the people’s sensitivities and the people bowed in respect of fair leadership. We had a past of values which even those who colonised us acknowledged in their own moments of sobriety.

Between the last days of 1927 and the early weeks of 1928, a group of United Kingdom’s Members of Parliament visited Nigeria. They moved from the coasts in Lagos through the hinterland forests to the grasslands of the North. They thoroughly toured the East of Nigeria and the creeks of the Niger Delta – then went back to London through Lagos. At a dinner of the African Society in London on 13 March, 1928, leader of the delegation, Major Walter Eliot, presented his team’s report. In that report, Major Eliot said while in Nigeria, his team saw an “honest attempt” by the black man to build “a house” for his soul; a house “where the black man could find a shelter” against the impact of a strange alien culture; a house “from which in years to come, he may take his own share as a partner in the progress of the world – not as an inferior and certainly not as a serf…” Eliot’s optimism – expressed in that report 96 years ago – was hasty and misplaced. If the Briton visits Nigeria of today, he will meet 200 million people shuffling and struggling (not) to be serfs of power.

That is not all from Eliot. Everywhere they went, his team said they saw a people who had very high regard for their leaders and who had their leaders’ respect. He disclosed that his team members were surprised (and impressed) and were of the conviction that “the black man should look to the black ruler as the keystone in the arch of rule; that the white man should not be the keystone…that the rule should be of the black man by the black man and – as far as we can devise it – for the black man.”

They are long dead, those proud, upright people who were met in Nigeria by the British in 1927. About a hundred years after the Eliot team experience and the positive testimony from London, and 64 years after foreign rule, a virulent strain of disdain for the ruled – and disgust for the ruler – reigns. Our democracy is a despicable bazaar; the classic “every man for himself and God for us all.” What the 1927/28 visitors envisioned as the rule “of the black man by the black man” has turned out not “for the black man.” The rule serves the strongman and his clan whose ways are decidedly not necessarily the ways of their people.

They take the benefits; their children take. Their concubines and mistresses also pick theirs while your own portion is tucked away in their pouch. It is the reason they can’t reason with us when we say Nigeria cannot survive as a unitary presidentialism. They take our call for federalist sanity as a threat to the advantages they enjoy. They think a truly federal Nigeria would be too tight to structurise into personal fiefdoms. They work that federalism won’t happen. Not now, not tomorrow. And they are winning. They spring on us federal surprises everywhere. They set up institutions and make appointments that are designed to unitarise our lives under Big Brother. Because they are smart, they easily know that they can’t compete and feed their greed in a Nigeria that is properly structured. The result of their knowing is that we can’t breathe without their permission.

A restructured Nigeria has the prospect of not surrendering to Comrade Napoleon’s unitary dictatorship in the Animal farm. Less than one week into this democracy, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, in the Friday, 4 June, 1999 edition of the Nigerian Tribune, warned that Nigeria was on the way to a most destructive form of unitarism. “The road to the hell of unitarism is paved with good intentions. They should be careful…”, he warned the inheritors of the gains of the struggle for this democracy. They ignored him. We were too hopeful to hear him. But, words of elders, if they don’t come true in the morning, they will in the evening. The evening of Nigeria is here.

Speaking through his spokesman, Sunusi Bature, the Governor said he called for Bayero‘s arrest because he (Bayero) returned into two days after his dethronement to reclaim the palace, creating unrest in the state.

Bature was reacting to an article: ‘A Rendezvous with Recklessness and Executive Rascality,’ by Bala Ibrahim who accused Governor Yusuf of rascality and recklessness in power.

The Federal High Court in Kano recently ordered the state government to pay Bayero the sum of N10 million for breaching his fundamental rights, personal liberty and freedom of movement.

Citing Sections 35(1) and 41(1) of the 1999 Constitution, the court, presided by Justice Simon Amobeda, held that it was wrong for Yusuf to order Bayero’s arrest without lawful justification, which he said forced the applicant into house arrest for fear of been arrested.

Bala Ibrahim had used the ruling to mock and criticise the governor of being power drunk and taking reckless decisions, including demolition of buildings and the order to arrest Bayero in which the court granted compensations to all the applicants.

But Bature said: “Does Bala Ibrahim actually understand the workings of government and governance?

“I do not want to go into judicial pronouncements, but the point I want to make clear is that the issue of Kano Emirship is straightforward with the repeal of the Kano Emirate Law (2019) and enactment of Kano Emirate Law (2024), which gave Governor Yusuf the power to abolish the five emirates and return Kano to its glorious and historic position of one emirate.

“This is the wish of the people of Kano state.

“The reappointment of Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II did not also come to anyone as a surprise, because his dethronement and consequent banishment by Abdullahi Ganduje and his co-travellers was done out of malice.

“Now, calling for the arrest of dethroned Emir Aminu Bayero was only done for public good as his entrance into Kano, shortly after his dethronement posed a serious security threat which is being managed up till today.

“Governor Abba Yusuf remains the Chief Security Officer of Kano state, and no sane leader would fold his arms and watch Kano snowballs into a state of anarchy without taking action.”

On demolition, the governor said: “Again, the demolition of buildings and structures illegally acquired by former governor Ganduje, his family and friends, was an exercise carried out in good faith.

“It was an exercise pegged on the efforts to recover public property from the hands of very few individuals who believed they could pocket public funds, structures and resources and get away with them without giving a wink.

“We will not be deterred by propagandists like Bala Ibrahim doing the bidding of their paymasters, at the detriment of the welfare of the good people of Kano state and the socio-economic development of our dear state.”

[TheNation]