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The former military leader, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) has disclosed that the late Chief Moshood Abiola was the rightful winner of the presidential election held on June 12, 1993.
Naija News reports that IBB made this revelation in his autobiography, titled “A Journey in Service,” which was launched in Abuja on Thursday, February 20, 2025.
During the book review conducted by former Vice President Prof. Yemi Osibanjo, Babangida stated that MKO Abiola, who ran for the presidency under the Social Democratic Party (SDP), garnered both the highest number of votes and the necessary geographical distribution to assume the presidency.
He characterized the annulment of the June 12 election as the most difficult period of his life.
“There was no doubt in my mind; MKO Abiola won the election. He satisfied all the requirements,” he said.
IBB expressed his satisfaction that President Muhammadu Buhari recognized Abiola as the rightful winner of the election and bestowed upon him the esteemed national title of Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR), a title typically reserved for presidents.
Meanwhile, former president of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, has described former military leader, Ibrahim Babangida as one of the charismatic leaders in the country.
Jonathan shared his admiration in Abuja on Thursday during the launch of a book by Babangida titled, ‘A Journey in Service”.
He hailed Babangida over the launch of his memoir and insisted that Nigeria’s history is incomplete without the former military leader’s story.
He said, “So, Ibrahim Bagandiga as we all know, is one of the most charismatic leaders in this country. He is somebody that, up to date, people go as if they are going on a pilgrimage to consult him. We thank God for giving him that grace and the wisdom to continue to mentor people.
“In terms of leadership, Nigerians know you have contributed significantly in terms of the infrastructure development of this country and social mobilisation. We cannot write the history of Nigeria without dedicating a reasonable part to your service as the president of Nigeria, You’ve done well!”
According to him, with the launch of the book, the former head president has contributed immensely to the documentation of the country’s rich history.
There was a mild drama on Wednesday as a standoff over seating arrangements led to a heated exchange between Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan (PDP, Kogi Central) and the senate leadership.
Trouble began when Senator Natasha’s seat was relocated upon resumption of the session presided by the Senate President, Godswill Obot Akpabio, but she refused to comply with the change.
The Chief Whip, Senator Mohammed Ali Monguno drew the attention of the Senate President to “Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan’s improper seating position of the lawmaker.”
Upholding this position, Senate President Godswill Akpabio ruled in favor of the order. However, when Senator Natasha raised her hand to speak, she was denied recognition because she was not addressing the chamber from her newly assigned seat.
Refusing to back down, Senator Natasha raised her voice in protest, directly confronting the Senate President.
“I don’t care if I am silenced. I am not afraid of you. You have denied me my privilege,” the Kogi lawmaker said.
The lawmaker also accused Akpabio of sidelining her, stating that she had been denied several opportunities to present bills for a second reading since their last confrontation.
The argument added an unexpected layer of drama and tension during the plenary. The Senate President even ordered the sergeant at arms to walk the Kogi Central senator out, but after the intervention from various lawmakers, calm was restored but she adamantly declined to move.
[DailyTrust]
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has advised former military President and Head of State, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida to expect diverse criticism of his new literary work – “A Journey in Service”.
He disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja while declaring open the public presentation of the book and fundraising for a presidential library to be built in Minna, Niger State capital.
Obasanjo, who was the chairman of the occasion commended the efforts of the former military tactician in writing the book, stressing that Babangida has not only contributed to history-making, he has contributed to documenting history.
He stated: “You have not only contributed to history, you have contributed documenting to history.
“It is an important part of our nation-building to keep accurate records. Please don’t be unduly worried about critics and put him down syndrome.
He then advised Babangida to expect a wide range of criticism over the book.
According to him, “The book will be reviewed, read, quoted, praised and lambasted, and some will agree with you in part, and some will disagree with you in part, some may even wholly disagree with you. Why should you write the book? It is self-glorification. They will say. Controversy may even develop. It’s all good for you and good for the book and our nation-building process, the more praised and condemned the book is, the better because it means that it is being read.
“Please don’t be unduly worried about critics and put him down syndrome. It may even be an indication of success but take note of objective criticism. You should expect a reaction galore. The reaction will be good, bad and ugly.”
[TheNation]
Former military Head of State, Ibrahim Babangida, on Thursday, expressed regret over the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, describing it the most difficult period of his life.
Babangida said this at the official launch of his memoir, ‘A Journey in Service,’ in Abuja.
He said, “Undoubtedly credible, free and fair elections were held in June, on June 12, 1993.
“However, the tragic irony of history remains that the administration that devised a near-perfect electoral system and conducted those near-perfect elections could not complete the process.
“That accident of history is most regrettable. The nation is entitled to expect my impression of regret.
“As a leader of the military administration, I accept full responsibility for all decisions taken under my watch.”
He added, “And June 12 happened under my watch, mistakes, oversights and missteps happened in quick succession, but I say in my book, in all matters, we acted in the supreme national interest so that Nigeria could survive.
“Our nation’s march to democracy was interrupted, a fact that I deeply regret. But Nigeria and democracy is still alive, a testament to commitment.”
Former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo also rehashed Babangida’s words while reviewing the book.
“June 12 elections was the most challenging of my life. If have to do it all over again, I’ll do it differently,” Osinbajo said quoting a section from the book.
The book, which offers insights into key moments in the country’s history, also addresses other national controversies, including the 1976 coup attempt that led to the assassination of then-Head of State, Murtala Muhammed, and the 1986 letter bomb that killed investigative journalist, Dele Giwa.
Reflecting on his decision to annul the June 12 election, widely regarded as the most credible in the country’s history, Babangida admitted that if given another chance, he would have handled the situation differently.
The June 12 election, won by businessman and politician, Moshood Abiola, is considered Nigeria’s freest and fairest election.
However, Babangida annulled the results, citing concerns over national security.
This sparked widespread protests and political unrest nationwide at the time.
The annulment eventually led to Babangida’s resignation and a prolonged struggle for democracy in Nigeria, culminating in the return to civilian rule in 1999.
Thursday’s event marked the official launch of General Babangida’s official memoir, ‘A Journey in Service’.
It drew an elite gathering of past and present leaders who reflected on his legacy and the state of democracy in West Africa.
Discussions ranged from Babangida’s contributions to Nigeria’s political history to concerns over the resurgence of military coups in the region.
In his keynote address, former Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo emphasised the importance of multi-party democracy in Africa’s development.
He warned against the growing wave of military takeovers, calling them a setback to democratic progress.
“Multiple parties are good for our continent,” Akufo-Addo said, urging leaders to protect democratic institutions.
Former Nigerian Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon (retd.), lauded Babangida’s rise from aide-de-camp to head of state, describing him as a “boss of bosses.”
Gowon also expressed gratitude for Babangida’s decision to restore his rank of General after it was stripped following the 1976 coup.
The former head of state said, “Thank you for restoring my rank,” reflecting on how Babangida’s leadership impacted his life.
Meanwhile, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, another former military president, shared personal anecdotes about his long-standing relationship with Babangida, which, he said, spans over 80 years.
Abdulsalami recalled a childhood prophecy that foretold Babangida’s rise to power and commended him for documenting his life’s journey.
“Your memoir will enrich the country,” Abdulsalami stated.
For his part, former President Goodluck Jonathan described Babangida as one of Nigeria’s most charismatic leaders and called for the creation of presidential libraries to preserve the country’s political history.
“IBB brought us here today to celebrate his book and library.
“His home has become somewhat of a pilgrimage site,” Jonathan noted.
Representing immediate-past President Muhammadu Buhari, ex-Minister of Transportation, Jaji Sambo, delivered a congratulatory message, expressing hope that Babangida would continue offering valuable counsel to Nigeria’s leadership.
Various dignitaries and businessmen such as the Chairman of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote and the Chairman of BUA Group, Abdulsamad Rabiu, launched the book with N8bn and N5bn each.
Dangote pledged to donate N2bn annually for four years for the construction of the IBB Presidential Library.
Meanwhile, Senator Sani Musa, representing Niger East Senatorial District, donated N250m; the Fidelity Bank leadership launched the book with N150m, while Businessman Arthur Eze donated N500m.
[Punch]
I didn’t tell Bola Ige there’d be consequences quitting Obasanjo’s govt – Rotimi counters Akande
Admin
Retired Brig.-Gen. Oluwole Rotimi has denied Chief Bisi Akande’s claim that he told the late Bola Ige he would face consequences if he left the Obasanjo-led administration.
Rotimi, the former military governor of the old Western State, clarified at a news conference held in Ibadan on Thursday to mark his 90th birthday.
It would be recalled that Akande, a former Osun governor, recently claimed in a radio interview that Rotimi said there would be consequences should Ige consider leaving the Obasanjo government.
Ige, who served as the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice under Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s government, was murdered on Dec. 23, 2001, at his Bodija residence in Ibadan.
The retired general said Obasanjo had called him when he wanted to change his cabinet to speak to Ige, not to contemplate walking out of his government.
“There was a lot of pressure on Ige to leave the Obasanjo government from people, including Prof. Wole Soyinka.
“I now advised Chief Bola Ige, ‘Please, don’t do it. Obasanjo did not make a mistake in appointing you a minister in his government, and he appreciates your usefulness to his government.
“I did not say if he left, something would happen to him.
“That I advised Chief Bola Ige not to walk out of Obasanjo’s government is a fact, but I did not tell him there would be consequences should he do it.
“First and foremost, that is what I want to clarify,” Rotimi said.
The retired general said what Akande said was, therefore, a misrepresentation.
He urged him to try as much as possible to get his facts right on the situation.
He further said he wondered how he would have known what would happen to Ige since he was not in government.
However, Rotimi faulted the steps taken by the government after Ige’s death, saying a thorough investigation should have been conducted into his death that had been so controversial.
“They should have gone beyond those who are his security personnel.
“If you limit your investigation right from the beginning, how do you deal with other facts hanging around, which nobody thought about?
“That is the way I feel they should go, but I have learnt over the years to close my mouth because I don’t want to say something which I cannot publicly defend in order not to be seen as a fool,” he said.
The former old Western State military governor said he felt for both Ige and Nigerians who looked up to him (Ige) as a leader.
Unfortunately, he said, there was nothing he could do because he was not in a position of authority.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Rotimi was born on Feb. 20, 1935, in Abeokuta, Ogun.
He became the military governor of the Western State in 1971 under Gen. Yakubu Gowon.
(NAN)
I don’t believe women should replace their father’s name after marriage, says Sanusi’s daughter-in-law
Admin
Sultana Nazif, the daughter-in-law of Muhammadu Sanusi II, the Emir of Kano, says she doesn’t believe in women replacing their father’s name after marriage.
During a question-and-answer session on her Instagram story, a fan asked Sultana if she had changed her last name from Nazif to Sanusi after marrying Ashraf Adam, the son of Sanusi.
“Have you changed your name to Sultana Sanusi?” the fan asked.
Sultana replied, “No, I don’t believe in replacing your father’s name after marriage”.
Her stance is quite unusual, as in many cultures, women traditionally take their husband’s surname after marriage.
Some women, however, choose to hyphenate their last names or keep their maiden name for personal or professional reasons.
In August 2024, Sultana tied the knot with the Ashraf in Abuja.
She is the daughter of Suleiman Mohammed Nazif, a politician from Bauchi state.
Ashraf, on the other hand, is one of the sons of Muhammad Lamido Sanusi II.
Sanusi served as the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from 2009 to 2014. He was suspended by ex-President Goodluck Jonathan under controversial circumstances.
He would later become the Emir of Kano. However, in 2020, Sanusi was deposed by Abdullahi Ganduje, the state governor, for “disrespecting lawful instructions”.
On May 23, Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf reinstated Sanusi as Emir of Kano.
[TheCable]
XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) and Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) have plenty of catalysts to support their future growth, and it's common knowledge that financial institutions around the world are adopting both coins for various reasons. But there's one new trend in particular that's driving those same financial institutions to take more interest in these two coins.
The trend might take years to play out, if it continues at all. For investors, that part could be great news, as it could lead to a new era of upwardly mobile prices borne from millions of people getting real utility from both coins. Here's what you need to know.
There's going to be a lot more physical stuff tracked on the blockchain
People trading in crypto know that Bitcoin and XRP are blockchains, and that the coins that live on those chains are associated with a myriad number of different wallet addresses. One person could have many wallets, or only one, just like they could have vast holdings of the tokens, or only a small pile.
When Bitcoin was first invented, tokens were fungible. Put differently, every token was identical to every other token, except for the address where it resided -- just like the dollar bills in your physical wallet right now.
Since then, upgrades have been made to the Bitcoin chain so that coins can include metadata that inscribes additional information. That's one of the ways that the chain can now be used to mint, send, and hold non-fungible tokens (NFTs). So far, many of the NFTs minted on the coin's chain are decidedly non-serious memes rather than anything that's useful in a financial sense or otherwise investable.
XRP has a similar capability. What's the point of a coin like XRP that's intended for serious financial applications, specifically reducing fees associated with international money transfers, having such a function? The chain isn't compatible with swapping images of meme coins or other more traditional uses of NFTs on other chains.
In short, this functionality opens the door to tracking real world assets (RWA) like properties, commodities, stocks, art, bonds, cars, and more, all on the blockchain. An NFT could contain the legal rights to a property provided that the holder could prove that they control the wallet address where the NFT resides. And that's exactly what's happening more and more on XRP and to a lesser extent on Bitcoin.
The push to track RWAs on various blockchains is just starting. As of early 2025, an estimated $7.6 billion worth of hard assets were tracked across the cryptocurrency sector. Some of the headier estimates for the growth of such tokenized assets see the total value tracked on blockchains to surpass $30 trillion by 2030.
Moving forward, at least some subset of investors looking to create a traceable record of their assets are going to use XRP or Bitcoin. In the long run, that could bring billions of dollars in value to both chains, pushing their price skyward in the process.
It's still the early days
As appealing as RWA tokenization may seem right now, there isn't any reason to rush to buy either XRP or Bitcoin on the basis of this trend alone, at least not yet.
They aren't the only two chains in the running for tracking the world's assets. Many others have the same capabilities, and there is no guarantee that either of these two will win the fight for market share. In fact, because of how difficult it is to update Bitcoin, it's better to bet against its becoming the chain for tracking real world assets.
XRP may have a better chance, as it's being actively developed, and it's already in use by international banks for the purpose of processing money transfers. It wouldn't be too difficult for those financial institutions to tokenize the assets they control using XRP, and it'd likely be a lot cheaper and faster than trying to do the same with Bitcoin.
But it's unclear how much demand for XRP those efforts would actually generate at this early stage. Keep in mind that XRP's network charges fees that are a fraction of a penny for each transfer that occurs using the coin; there's simply no way that transferring assets could ever produce much in the way of revenue unless the transactions were priced differently.
Overall, the takeaway here for investors is that there may be a big addition to the investment thesis for both of these cryptocurrencies over the next few years if the RWA tokenization trend really takes off. Keep an eye on how much the major financial institutions buy into the idea. If it seems like they're all in, and if they choose either Bitcoin or XRP to be the tool for implementing the tokenization process, it'll be a strong buy signal.
Don’t miss this second chance at a potentially lucrative opportunity
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Alex Carchidi has positions in Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin and XRP. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
[The Motley Fool]
Microsoft has announced the arrival of Majorana 1, a new quantum chip that produces more reliable and scalable qubits than its predecessors. Qubits are the building blocks of quantum computers.
The tech giant considers Majorana 1 to be a major milestone in the road to the future of useful quantum computing. Appearing on a podcast on YouTube, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that the company will be able to build a quantum computer somewhere between 2027-29.
Microsoft’s breakthrough revolves around engineering a new type of particle known as Majorana. These Majorana particles have been fabricated using topological conductors and they exist in a topological state, which differs from traditional states of matter such as solid, liquid, and gas.
“In the same way that the invention of semiconductors made today’s smartphones, computers and electronics possible, topoconductors and the new type of chip they enable offer a path to developing quantum systems that can scale to a million qubits and are capable of tackling the most complex industrial and societal problems,” Microsoft said in a blog post published on Wednesday, February 19.
Though, the company has not released any performance data on its quantum chip.
What we know about Majorana 1
Over the past 20 years, Microsoft researchers have taken a unique approach by focusing on developing topological qubits, which are said to be more stable than traditional qubits and require less error correction from the start.
However, the company said that it faced many challenges in creating topological qubits as it “posed a steep learning curve”. “The disadvantage [was] that until recently the exotic particles Microsoft sought to use, called Majoranas, had never been seen or made,” the company said.
First theorised over 80 years ago by Italian physicist Ettore Majorana, Majorana fermions are particles that are their own anti-particles. But, there was no physical evidence of such particles.
According to science publication IEEE Spectrum, researchers detected signs of a kind of Majorana fermion known as a Majorana zero mode (MZM), where groups of electrons and other particles act as a single particle.
To bring these new particles into existence, Microsoft said it first set out to build topological conductors or topoconductors. Unlike traditional semiconductors that are usually made of silicon, Microsoft’s topoconductor is made of indium arsenide. This is the same material used in infrared detectors.
Topoconductors are made by combining indium arsenide (a semiconductor) and aluminium (a superconductor). When cooled to near absolute zero and tuned with magnetic fields, the semiconductor is married with superconductivity.
“We took a step back and said ‘OK, let’s invent the transistor for the quantum age. What properties does it need to have?’” said Chetan Nayak, a Microsoft technical fellow specialising in quantum computing. “And that’s really how we got here – it’s the particular combination, the quality and the important details in our new materials stack that have enabled a new kind of qubit and ultimately our entire architecture,” Nayak said.
Majorana 1 is an eight-qubit chip, which may seem modest when compared to quantum chips developed by rivals such as Google’s Willow (106-qubit chip) and IBM’s R2 Heron (156-qubit chip).
However, the company said that Majorana 1’s underlying Topological Core architecture allows for the quantum chip to be potentially scaled to a million qubits.
“This is a needed threshold for quantum computers to deliver transformative, real-world solutions – such as breaking down microplastics into harmless byproducts or inventing self-healing materials for construction, manufacturing or healthcare,” the company said.
Quantum computers vs supercomputers vs classical computers
Everything that is typed into classical computers such as words and numbers get translated into binary code comprising bits, with a value of 0 (ground state) or 1 (excited state). A qubit, on the other hand, leverages the principles of quantum mechanics to exist in both states simultaneously.
For instance, a qubit could have a 25 per cent probability of having a value of 0 and a 75 per cent probability of having a value of 1. This means that a single qubit can represent a greater amount of information than a single classical bit.
As a result, quantum computers are able to process information in ways that are impossible for classical computers to do so. This means that they are capable of solving problems that classical computers cannot.
But how are quantum computers different from supercomputers?
With advanced architectures and relying on acceleration techniques such as graphic processing units (GPUs) and multi-core processing, supercomputers excel at performing calculations at a faster pace. That said, they are still bound by the constraints of classical computing principles and depend on logic gates such as AND, OR, XOR, and NOT gates to manipulate classical bits.
Quantum computers, on the other hand, use quantum gates such as H-gate and Pauli gates that are designed to process qubits and are also reversible in nature. These quantum gates can be used to develop circuits and algorithms and solve problems that are otherwise impossible to solve.
Majorana 1’s architecture features aluminum nanowires joined together to form an H. Each H has four controllable Majorana particles and makes one qubit, Microsoft said.
How could quantum computers be used?
Quantum computers have long-been considered to be the tools that are needed to unlock new scientific discoveries. Since quantum computers are based on the principles of quantum mechanics, they are able to mathematically map the behaviour of nature with greater precision.
“For instance, they could help solve the difficult chemistry question of why materials suffer corrosion or cracks. This could lead to self-healing materials that repair cracks in bridges or airplane parts, shattered phone screens or scratched car doors,” Microsoft said.
The company also envisions combining quantum computers with its generative AI tools. “This would allow someone to describe what kind of new material or molecule they want to create in plain language and get an answer that works straightaway,” it added.
“If you have AI plus quantum, maybe you’ll use quantum to generate synthetic data that then gets used […] to train better AI models,” Nadella said in the YouTube interview.
But, according to the Microsoft CEO, the first thing a quantum computer would allow researchers to do is build better quantum computers by making it easier to simulate atom-by-atom construction of new quantum gates.
However, one of the biggest hurdles in bringing quantum computing into reality are errors.
“Error correction is essential for quantum computers to function well and become useful. Errors occur when a quantum system interacts with its external environment and loses its delicate quantum characteristics,” Daniel Lidar, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at University of Southern California (USC), said in a statement.
In December last year, Google announced that it has developed a state-of-the-art quantum computing chip called Willow that can solve in under five minutes a computation so complex, it would have taken a supercomputer around 10 septillion (10^25) years to complete.
Notably, the search giant claimed to have found a way to exponentially reduce errors in quantum computers while using more qubits to scale up the technology.
“They demonstrated that quantum error correction works as theoreticians have predicted: as they made their error-corrected `logical qubit’ larger, the results improved. Previously, in most cases, errors only increased.” Lidar said.
[indianexpress]
KEY POINTS
- Chinese smartphone maker Oppo on Thursday revealed the Find N5, a new flagship phone that can fold in half.
- The Find N5 will retail at a starting price of around $1,870.
- Oppo is hoping it can win business from the likes of Samsung and fellow Chinese smartphone giant Huawei.
Chinese smartphone firm Oppo has unveiled its new flagship folding phone Thursday, touting a slimmer body and artificial intelligence-focused features in a bid to compete with high-end foldable devices from the likes of Samsung and Huawei.
The company’s Find N5 phone that can fold in half, will retail at a starting price of 2,499 Singapore dollars ($1,867.70).
When it’s folded shut, the Find N5 looks like a normal bar-shaped phone with a 6.62-inch display. The device can then be folded outward to show a larger, 8.12-inch tablet.
Most notably, the phone has an ultra-thin design. When closed, it measures 8.93 millimeters thick, while when opened out in tablet form, the Find N5 has a depth of 4.21 millimeters.
That’s slimmer than Samsung’s Galaxy Fold 6, which the South Korean tech giant released last year.
Inside the device is a razer-thin 5,600 milliampere-hour (mAh) battery that’s no bigger than a credit card. Oppo said the battery incorporates a silicon-carbon material, which enables high battery capacity despite its small size.
Oppo is hoping it can win business from the likes of Samsung and Chinese tech giant Huawei, both major smartphone players seeking to shake the market out of an innovation slowdown with flashy new models that can bend.
Earlier this week, Huawei launched the Mate XT, a “trifold” phone with three screens, outside of China for the first time.
AI assistant features
Like many other smartphone makers, Oppo is investing more into artificial intelligence-focused features on the device.
The Oppo Find N5 has a triple-camera setup that includes a telephoto lens that can zoom in up to 30x thanks to assistance from an AI-powered image enhancement feature, dubbed AI Telescope Zoom.
It also comes with a personal AI assistant that can interpret and summarize documents, generate summaries of phone calls and translate video calls and other content displayed on the screen.
Addressing concerns around privacy, Oppo said that some data is processed directly on the device while other information is stored in the cloud. In international markets, Oppo is using Google as its AI and cloud computing technology partner.
An Oppo spokesman told CNBC the company “strictly abides by local laws, regulations and privacy security protection requirements.”
Samsung recently launched additional AI capabilities on its new flagship Galaxy S25 series, including the ability to carry out tasks across multiple apps when prompted and integration of Google’s Gemini AI assistant.
Controlling a Mac with an Android phone
Oppo also talked up a new feature that enables users to connect their phone to a Mac computer. Using an app called O+ Connect, users can link the Find N5 to any Mac desktop machine and instantly transfer photos and other files between devices — so long as they’re connected to the same Wi-Fi network.
Users can also choose to remotely control a Mac from the Find N5. The Mac’s display can shut off and then reappear on the Find N5′s screen. The remote control feature only requires mobile internet or Wi-Fi to sync up a Mac device’s data with the Find N5 in real-time.
The feature uses public macOS application programming interfaces, which enable two different apps to communicate with each other. Oppo said O+ Connect “fully complies with macOS platform and software regulations.”
Ben Wood, chief analyst at market research firm CCS Insight, told CNBC the Find N5 “shows the art of the possible when engineering a product with flexible display technology.”
Wood added that, while Huawei’s triple-screened Mate XT led to some fanfare, “commercially I think the smart money is still on the book-like form factor already offered by Samsung, Honor, Google and now Oppo.”
Samsung teased a trifold smartphone prototype at its January Unpacked event for the launch of the Galaxy S25. It’s not clear yet if the phone is a product Samsung will launch commercially anytime soon.
[CNBC]
Chinese tech company Lenovo (0992.HK), opens new tab reported hefty gains in quarterly revenue and net profit that beat expectations and said it would benefit from the adoption of DeepSeek's artifical intelligence model in its products.
Driven by robust demand for its AI-powered servers, Lenovo's third-quarter revenue surged by a fifth to $18.8 billion, ahead of an LSEG consensus estimate of $17.8 billion.
Net profit more than doubled from the previous year to $693 million, trouncing an average forecast of $367.7 million.
Though best known for its personal computers, the company has diversified in recent years, expanding into software and services. It also has positioned itself to benefit from the booming demand for AI applications by expanding its AI server and software businesses.
Lenovo launched its first AI-powered PCs in China last May and followed that with a global rollout in September. CEO Yang Yuanqing has projected that AI PCs will account for a quarter of Lenovo's shipments by 2025, potentially reaching 80% by 2027.
An employee gestures next to a Lenovo logo at Lenovo Tech World in Beijing, China November 15, 2019. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
The company said this week it has integrated technology from startup DeepSeek - which has upended the AI sector with its low-cost model - into its devices, including PCs and tablets.
"DeepSeek has improved AI efficiency. The new models with a high inferencing efficiency and low computing power costs will democratise access to AI," Yang told Reuters on Thursday in a post-earnings interview.
That would drive demand and increase the ways in which AI can be used, he said, adding that the emergence of DeepSeek may also boost demand for GPU servers.
Lenovo's infrastructure solutions group, which includes servers, saw a 59% revenue increase in the December quarter compared with the previous year.
The solutions and services group, which offers cloud-based software for enterprise clients, posted $2.3 billion in revenue, up 12% from a year earlier.
Lenovo's Hong Kong-listed shares initially jumped after the results but were last trading down 6%. They have surged 17% for the year to date.
[Reuters]
More...
Pegging the entry age for tertiary education has been generating concerns in the country in recent times, with many saying 16 years is the way to go as against 18 years stipulated in the National Policy on Education.
The issue escalated last year when the immediate-past minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, during a monitoring exercise, discovered that children below the age of 16 were sitting for the UTME. He raised concern about it and emphasised the need to maintain the 18-year threshold in the policy.
“That’s the stage when students migrate from a controlled environment to where they are in charge of their own affairs. So, if they are too young, they won’t be able to manage properly. That accounts for some of the problems we are seeing in the universities,” he said.
However, this generated a lot of outbursts from parents, students and stakeholders as they said children who have finished Senior Secondary III should not be left to stay at home as a result of age.
However, the present minister, Dr Tunji Alausa, reversed the decision, sticking to 18 years as the entry age and recommending 16 years.
He further summoned a National Council on Education and made a proposal that the 16-year policy on admission into tertiary institutions should be incorporated into the National Policy on Education.
He said: “I am sure many of you have heard about the challenges we face as a nation with talented, bright students being disenfranchised from pursuing tertiary education. In any society, it is crucial to standardise the education of highly functional and exceptionally gifted students.”
“We are now preventing these students, after finishing secondary education at the age of 16, from attending university until they are 18. This delays their development and harms their future. These students are capable and brave. If we leave them idle, we risk exacerbating mental health issues,” he said.
However, the council in a communiqué at the end of its meeting, approved that 16 years be incorporated in the National Policy on Education.
Learners’ age in SS3 in senior secondary schools
Nigeria currently operates the 9-3-4 system, which consists of nine years of basic education, three years of senior secondary education, and four years of tertiary education.
Looking at the trajectory, a child is supposed to start primary 1 at the age of 6 years meaning the child will be 17 at SS3 depending, and is expected to be 18 years at the time of entering tertiary institution.
However, a current report on Senior Secondary Schools in Nigeria shows that many students who are below the age of 15 are already in SS3.
According to the 2023/2024 Senior Secondary Schools data on the age of learners produced by the National Senior Secondary Education Commission (NSSEC), 45,354 Senior Secondary III (SS3) students are below 15 years (meaning they are between 13 and 14 years).
Such students will be sitting for the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) and Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) between the age of 14 and 15 years.
The data shows that the 45,354 below 15 years learners were from 30 states while there is no data for seven states.
The breakdown of data according to states shows that Rivers State has the highest number with 14,168, while Bauchi followed with 6,252 learners and Kaduna with 3,806.
In the fourth place is Lagos with 3,372, followed by Cross River 2,422, Kwara 2,119, Kogi, 1985, Ekiti 1,782, Nasarawa 1,775, Sokoto, 1,706 and Anambra 1,476.
Others are Katsina with 1,433, Zamfara 854, Osun 848, Borno 642, Enugu 276, Taraba 243 and Gombe 198, while 11 states of Abia, Adamawa, Bayelsa, Benue, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Niger, Ondo, Oyo and Plateau have zero of under 15 years learners in SS3. Also, six states and FCT have no data under them.
With the above data, it is expected that many under-age learners will be writing the UTME to seek admission into higher institutions.
Recall that the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, revealed that over 11,000 underage candidates have registered for the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.
“It has become a common thing now, where parents whether mothers or fathers are registering their underage children, sometimes due to pressure or other reasons,” he said.
Reactions
Reactions have continued to trail the underage learners seeking admission into tertiary institutions.
A parent, Mr Timothy Abah, said underage learners are found everywhere because of the introduction of crèche and early child education, which exposes children to early learning.
He said he prefers a child to be 18 and mature before going to university but that the reality on the ground weakened his preference.
“Nigerian students suffer so many factors when they get into higher institutions like strikes, insecurity and sometimes crises that keep them away from school and so a child who has been projected to complete his studies at the age of 22 years, may extend to the age of 25 and after he will still wait for one year service, which you cannot guarantee is immediately and after industries will peg employment to 25 years,” he said.
He said it is difficult to do the right thing and so he has to accept 16 years but nothing less.
Another parent, Eucharia Azubuike, said 18 years is the best age to enter university because the child’s brain will be mature enough to handle challenges.
She blamed the surge of underage learners on parents and school owners who are pushing children to school earlier than it is supposed to be.
As a student then, there are many who are in their 20s and don’t even know how to handle issues while in university, so imagine a 16-year-old in university, no doubt he or she can do well academically because they read and studied, but you will see they are lacking in other things.
An educationist, Michael Sule said 16 years is appropriate because there are children who become so intelligent so early and may complete their secondary education before 15 years and it would be wrong to keep them at home because of age.
“The only thing is if a child fails to pass the examination and meet the required marks, he can stay back and rewrite but not stopping them because they are considered underage,“ he said.
Meanwhile, A Mother’s Love Initiative (AMLI), an NGO dedicated to addressing the challenges of raising stable and balanced children in Nigeria, has raised concern about the federal government’s pegging of the entry age to 16 years.
A letter to the federal government seen by the Daily Trust signed by the Chief Executive Officer of AMLI, Hanatu A. Enwemadu Esq, said: “We firmly believe that every child deserves the opportunity to receive education at the right age and level of maturity, ensuring their ability to effectively manage their affairs and thrive in their academic pursuits.
“We are writing to express serious concerns regarding the National Council on Education’s (NCE) resolution on February 6, 2025, which you chaired, to establish a 16-year minimum admission age for tertiary institutions.”
It raised some questions which include, what will be the corresponding appropriate age for primary school enrollment, how will this policy affect Nigerian students pursuing education abroad, given potential age-based placement discrepancies and how does this policy compare internationally? Could its implementation be detrimental to Nigerian children and youth development?
It, therefore, urged that they carefully consider the policy’s potential impact on the well-being and development of Nigerian children and youths.
They requested that the federal government consider commissioning research on early university admission, evaluate the School for Gifted Children, and investigate post-JAMB exams, research on age and academic success and international comparisons.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, has said the ministry is working with JAMB to work out cases of gifted children.
He said: “There’s this 2% that will superbly tell you they’re the geniuses of the world. They operate and function at a higher capacity than any one of us in society. We have to make provision for them, but in a country like ours, that is being abused, we want to stop those abuses.
“Now JAMB has been mandated to do this gifted children placement test, which will be very objective. So if you have gifted children that you want, think or believe they qualify to get to university before the age of 16, they will have to go to that exam.
“If they pass those exams, yes, but if they don’t pass that exam, that will not happen. So we have to create an objective pathway to cater for these gifted children,” he said.
[DailyTrust]
Russia said its forces have taken back more than 800 square kilometers of territory from Ukraine in the Kursk region of western Russia, which had been taken by Ukraine since an incursion began last year.
The head of the General Staff’s main operational directorate, Colonel General Sergei Rudskoi, said that Russia was advancing in all directions and that Ukraine had been pushed into a defensive stance since February 2024 amid a major Russian offensive that reclaimed considerable territory.
According to Rudskoi, Russia now controlled 75% of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions and more than 99% of the Luhansk region.
He added that the four regions are now legally part of Russia and will never be returned to Ukraine.
“Last year was a turning point in achieving our goals. The Kyiv regime will no longer be able to significantly change the situation on the battlefield.
“The enemy has largely lost the ability to produce the necessary weapons, equipment, and ammunition. Mobilization is usually forced,” Rudskoi said.
Rudskoi stated that the future of the conflict no longer depended on Ukraine but on whether or not the West would agree to craft a new European security architecture that took into account Russia’s interests.
[DailyPost]
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at identifying and eliminating federal funds being used for undocumented migrants, the White House said.
The order “directs Federal departments and agencies to identify all federally funded programs currently providing financial benefits to illegal aliens and take corrective action,” according to a White House fact sheet issued on Wednesday.
“It ensures that Federal funds to states and localities will not be used to support ‘sanctuary’ policies or assist illegal immigration,” the document said.
It also “mandates improvements in eligibility verification to prevent benefits from going to individuals unlawfully present in the United States.”
The order is to ensure that “taxpayer resources are not used to incentivize or support illegal immigration,” it added.
The order is the latest in a string of actions on immigration since Trump took office last month.
The New York Times reported that undocumented immigrants are largely not eligible for federal benefits, with only some exceptions allowed for emergency situations.
[Vanguard]
Governor Siminalayi Fubara says he enjoys ‘’freedom’’ in governing Rivers State because God allowed the political crisis in the state to happen.
Recalling the efforts of Primate of the Anglican Communion Church of Nigeria Henry Ndukauba to end the crisis, Fubara said: ‘’God has a way of doing his things. Maybe if we had got peace, I wouldn’t be enjoying the freedom that I am enjoying today.’’
He spoke on Tuesday night when Ndukauba led bishops of the Anglican Communion to pay him a visit in Government House, Port Harcourt.
But hours after the governor’s comment, the Martins Amaewhule-led 27-member House of Assembly reconvened and restated that all Fubara’s appointments were contemptuous of courts’ judgments and extant laws of the state.
It went a step further to direct the Clerk of the House, Emeka Amadi, to disclaim the appointees through a publication.
While addressing the Primate, Fubara said: “I start first in a very unusual way to say thank you. This appreciation would have come much earlier. Many of you here may not understand why I am thanking him.
“When the crisis started, as a man of God who believes that the two main parties(Fubara and his immediate predecessor, Nyesom Wike) are people from his communion, he made several phone calls and booked several appointments but none of them was granted to him.
‘’I want to thank him for what he did even though it didn’t yield the required result, but you see God has a way of doing his things.
“Maybe if we had got peace then, I wouldn’t be enjoying the freedom that I am enjoying today.
‘’So at times, God will be saying let the trouble be there so that there will be peace. But that is not to say that we encourage trouble.
‘’ Peace remains the best thing, both internally and externally because it attracts development.”
The governor expressed happiness that the Diocese was holding its Standing Committee Meeting in Rivers State at a time when his government needed prayers to keep functioning.
He said Bond of Peace which is the theme of the meeting, was apt as daily events and occurrences indicated that peace was urgently needed in the country.
Fubara said God was directing the activities of his government and that he would not take the glory and power.
His words “ I thank the church for standing with us. Your prayers are greater than the noise-making or the protest that we are engaging in.
“ You all are seeing the kind of governance we are providing. It is the governance of peace and freedom for people to operate. Ours is a government that listens and admits at any point we are at fault and makes amends.
‘’We are not seeking for attention.’’
Primate Ndukauba explained to the governor that they appreciated his achievements in the state.
He said: “Despite the challenges that you are facing, we thank God that you have kept focus and you are executing the things that you needed to do as the executive governor of this state.
“ God has the power to raise and to remove, but it has pleased Him that you are there today.
“Though the situation may be challenging, we have seen the enormous work that you are doing and we thank God for you. We will continue to pray for you.”
[TheNation]