The Senate president, Godswill Akpabio said on Tuesday, September 19, that the 10th National Assembly might not be eager to regulate social media, saying that existing laws adequately address any violations by users of social media platforms.

Akpabio enjoined social media platforms users to use the platforms for positive productive engagements for the development of the country, adding that the country needs to keep pace with the emerging technologies for the benefit of all stakeholders.

He, however, said African countries need a digital future that is inclusive, secure and innovative, stressing that this should be the focus of all.

The Senate president made the remarks at the opening ceremony of the Parliamentarian Symposium of the African Internet Governance Forum (AIGF), held at Transcorp Hotel, Abuja.

The Forum which had the theme “Transforming Africa’s Digital Landscape: Empowering Inclusion, Security, and Innovation,” was with the support of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

He expressed confidence that the commitment of African Parliamentarians would ensure and deliver progress that represents the people’s aspirations, asserting that their coming together was aimed at initiating internet governance and digital policies and legislations to boost the sector.

Akpabio said: “This theme is a reflection of the deepest yearnings of all Africans for a concerted effort to keep in step with the rest of the world in the ICT race.”

Speaking through the Senate committee chairman on Cybersecurity and ICT, Afolabi Shuiab Salisu, the Senate president said emerging technologies cannot be taken in isolation from one another and that the existing laws should be allowed to take care of them.

He explained that it would be cumbersome to have laws on the usage of social media, another one on Artificial Intelligence (AI), and internet fraud, stressing that the country already has constitutional provisions to take care of breaches in any form or shape.

He said: “I am not sure that there’s going to be any specific bill on social media regulation. However, there are many laws in various areas, social media is just one space.

“So, rather than have a specific legislation on social media. I will rather say social media is just one platform. The same way people have used regular media platforms to commit libel, defamation, or sedition. So they will be taken care of.

“Thank God there was a court judgment somewhere, where a thumbs up has been acknowledged as approval for a business deal between parties. So, I don’t need to sign documents physically now before it become valid.

He said the time has come for African countries to take advantage of its active youthful population for empowerment, innovation and job creation, noting that “almost 70 percent of Nigeria’s population are youths. What does this mean? It does mean the youths can learn new technologies and use them for the benefit of all.”

The Secretary-General (AIGF), Hon. Samuel George, a member of the Ghanaian Parliament, who spoke on internet governance in Africa said, “Governments on the African continent are doing a fantastic job when it comes to the processes of digitalisation. We’re seeing a lot more government services becoming digitalised; social services, government services, health care, and justice, are becoming digital platforms.

“On West African sub-region Nigeria, is a big leader in that so we believe that governments are doing well”.

A wave of political anxiety has gripped the ancient city of Kano as the governorship elections tribunal is set to deliver its judgment on the 2023 governorship elections in the state.

The three-member tribunal led by Justice Flora Ngozi Azinge had earlier reserved its judgement and had on Monday announced its judgement date for today.

Daily Sun investigation indicated that the panic mode is majorly among the members of the ruling party and their arch rival, the All Progressives Congress ,(APC) while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has remained nonchalant over the unveiling development.

The much expected verdict has equally divided the state into two roughly equal parts with those opposed to the incumbent governor praying fervently for the tribunal to sack him and his team from the Kano Government House.

Daily Sun gathered that ahead of Wednesday’s judgement, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Nasiru Gawuna had returned to the state amid cheers from his supporters, who are largely optimistic of victory at the tribunal.

On its part, the sympathizers of the New Nigeria Peoples Party have been organising prayers in different parts of the state in the past one month, seeking favourable judgement from the tribunal.

They were equally hopeful of victory at the tribunal.

In the meantime, the police in the state have restricted vehicular traffic around the Bompai area of the court where the judgement will be delivered. A security source indicated that security arrangements will be expanded by tomorrow morning to check any breakdown of law and order.

The Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Gombe State, on Tuesday, nullified the victory of the incumbent Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Abubakar Luggerewo.

Luggerewo represents Akko central in the House.

Bashir Abdullahi of the Peoples Democratic Party had dragged Luggerewo of All Progressives Congress, and the Independent National Electoral Commission to the tribunal over the cancellation of results in polling units 001, 024 and 014 in Kumo East which allegedly gave APC an edge.

Luggerewo was recently announced as the Zonal Vice Chairman, North-East of the Conference of Speakers of State Legislatures of Nigeria and Chairman of the North-East Speakers Forum.

Justice Michael Ugar, in his ruling held that the cancellation of the polling units 001, 024 and 014 of Kumo units by the Independent National Electoral Commission were in error.

The tribunal while passing judgement said, “a rerun within the next 30 days of judgement in Kumo East 018 to ascertain the actual winner between Luggerewo of the All Progressive Congress and Bashir Abdullahi, of the Peoples Democratic Party.”

In a telephone interview with our correspondent, Luggerewo who sounded unruffled, assured that the party would appeal the judgement.

When asked if he followed the tribunal’s ruling he said, “I was not at the court but I was briefed.”

On the next move, Luggerewo said, “The next line of action is we are going to appeal.”

Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, has filed an appeal at the Supreme Court challenging the judgement of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal which upheld Bola Tinubu’s victory.

In a 50-ground notice of appeal, Obi, through his lead counsel Dr. Livy Uzoukwu SAN, contends that the Justice Haruna Tsammani-led panel wrongly dismissed his case. He argues that the tribunal incorrectly held that he did not specify polling units where irregularities occurred in the election.

Obi also faults the tribunal for dismissing his petition on the grounds that he did not provide figures of votes or scores that were allegedly suppressed or inflated in Tinubu’s favour. The panel is accused of erring in law by relying on provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 to strike out parts of the petition.

The appeal alleges a breach of Obi’s right to fair hearing, stating that his witnesses’ evidence was wrongly dismissed as incompetent. It claims the panel unjustly dismissed his allegation that INEC uploaded 18,088 blurred results on its IReV portal.

Obi further contends the lower court ignored his claim that INEC issued his team certified true copies containing over 8,000 blurred results and unknown images instead of actual polling unit results.

The notice of appeal states that the justices failed to establish Obi’s allegations of corrupt practices and over-voting against the declared winner, Tinubu. Obi is now seeking Judgement from the Supreme Court overturning the Appeal Court’s decision.

France national team captain, Kylian Mbappe, helped Paris St. Germain kicked off their Champions League campaign on a brighter note with a 2-0 home win against visiting Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday.

The French Lique 1 giant showed glimpses of what might be under new coach Luis Enrique with Mbappe opening the scoring with a second-half penalty and Moroccan international, Achraf Hakimi, doubled the lead with a fine goal.

It was only the third win in six competitive games for the Ligue 1 champions this season, and it gave them some much-needed relief after their first defeat at the weekend as they dutifully applied Enrique’s possession game.

PSG now top Group F with three points, two ahead of AC Milan and Newcastle, who drew 0-0 earlier on Tuesday.

[Leadership]

Julian Alvarez saved Manchester City’s blushes after Red Star Belgrade took a shock lead at the Etihad as the holders began their Champions League defence with a 3-1 win on Tuesday.

The visitors’ goal had been bombarded before they stunned Pep Guardiola’s men when Osman Bukari opened the scoring in first half stoppage time.

However, Alvarez continued his sparkling early season form by levelling just two minutes after the break.

The Argentine then got some help from Red Star goalkeeper Omri Glazer as he flapped at Alvarez’s free-kick to allow the ball to fly into the far corner.

Rodri rounded off the scoring with a composed finish 17 minutes from time.

Red Star were expected to be lambs to the slaughter after City followed up their treble success last season with a perfect start five games into the new Premier League campaign.

But the English champions made life difficult for themselves with some wayward finishing, while Glazer performed heroics for the Serbian giants before the break.

Rodri and Alvarez stung Glazer’s palms before Erling Haaland headed against the crossbar from point-blank range.

Phil Foden then nodded an even easier headed opportunity straight at the Israeli goalkeeper.

City’s stretched squad due to injuries was shown as they named only eight of a permitted 12 substitutes, two of which were goalkeepers.

Bernardo Silva was replaced just before half-time by Jeremy Doku in what could be another injury problem for Guardiola.

Red Star had barely been out their own half in the opening 45 minutes, but City were stunned when Bukari burst in behind and finished confidently past Ederson.

The Ghanaian’s joy was temporarily quelled by the offside flag.

But a VAR check revealed he had been played onside by Ruben Dias.

City quickly went to work after the break to ensure that was to be the only shock of the night.

Haaland may not have found his range in front of goal, but the Norwegian’s clever pass played in Alvarez to round Glazer for the equaliser.

All of the Red Star goalkeeper’s good work was then forgotten as his miscued punch just helped Alvarez’s free-kick on its way into the top corner.

Rodri was the City hero when they finally conquered Europe for the first time by beating Inter Milan 1-0 in Istanbul in June and the Spaniard is picking up the healthy habit of scoring vital goals.

The midfielder was afforded far too much room on the edge of the area and picked his spot with a perfectly weighted curling effort into the far corner to secure the three points.

[Guardian]

Oil marketers have said that they can no longer sustain the distribution of petroleum products across the country.

This is as a result of the hike in price of diesel used by these marketers to power their trucks.

The product now sells for N1,100/litre in many locations.

The marketers said the federal government must intervene urgently in order to arrest the situation.

This is the position of the marketers, under the aegis of Natural Oil and Gas Suppliers’ Association of Nigeria, NOGASA.

They raised the alarm in a statement signed by their President, Benneth Korie.

They cried out that diesel has witnessed an incessant hike in prices in recent months.

“NOGASA is worried about the ugly development and trying to understand why prices of diesel are going as high as N950 to N1,100 per litre in the market with a view to moderating the prices and shocks in the economy.”

[DailyPost]

The lingering question of how mankind  could strike a balance between competition and cooperation is implicit in the focus of the 78th United Nations General Assembly  which opened yesterday in New York, United States.

Nations have to find an urgent answer to this central question of existence as they grapple with the basic issues in their economies, polities and societies

This year’s meeting of world leaders has the following theme: “Rebuilding Trust and Reigniting Global Solidarity: Accelerating Action on the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals towards Peace, Prosperity, Progress and Sustainability for All.”

It  is fitting that global attention is on the idea  of cooperation in the face of problems that confront humanity as a collective. Such problems cannot be solved by socially  blind competition. The solutions would rather be enhanced by solidarity. 

President Bola Tinubu spoke appropriately  on the theme and the sub-themes from the Nigerian perspective touching on  sustainable development, climate change, global cooperation  inequality and global humanitarian crises.

In the light of the urgency demanded in responding to these issues, the United Nations (UN)  is understandably  suggesting the  acceleration of action on the 2030 Agenda on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set in 2015.  However, a cloud of pessimism  would hover in the background of the sessions for obvious reasons: half way through the 15-year period  proposed for the realisation of the goals none has been achieved. And the future prospects are far from being bright. Indeed, only in July, the UN published a status report indicating that the SDGs  “are in peril” what with the soul-depressing  fact that barely  12% of the targets  are on track. The grim report also indicates that about half of the goals have suffered varying degrees of setbacks. 

Just imagine the goals: “No Poverty; Zero Hunger;  Good Health and Well-Being; Quality Education; Gender Equality;  Clean Water and Sanitation; Affordable and Clean Energy; Decent Work and Economic Growth; Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure; Reduced Inequalities; Sustainable Cities and Communities; Responsible Consumption and Production; Climate Action; Life Below Water; Life on Land; Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions; and Partnerships for the Goals.”  

The pessimism about the realisation of the goals in many countries is said to be shared by the government, private sector and the civil society. In fact, some experts are already wondering if the SDGs can ever  be saved given the obvious lack of capacity of many countries to reach the goal. 

The practical implication of this lack of  meaningful progress in the realisation of the goals is manifest. Globally, about a quarter of young people are out of school or work,  the earth itself  is getting hotter  by the day and the sea is becoming more acidic. About 1.1 human beings are still victims of acute  multi-dimensional poverty in 110 countries.

Solidarity among nations is essential for  global  issues to  be resolved for the sake of human progress. Failure to tackle some of these problems in the spirit of cooperation may put the future of mankind at risk.  Unbridled competition among  the strong and the weak nations  may not be helpful in the present circumstance of humanity. Individualism and greed will not advance the cause of mankind. The public  purpose should be the  pull for action. This reality should inform the underlying  philosophy of social and economic policies 

This point could be illustrated by examining  the way the world is tackling some of these big issues  – climate change, inequality,  pandemics and migration.

Perhaps, the coronavirus  pandemic is  the most  chilling reminder  in recent years  of the primacy of our common humanity. COVID- 19,  the disease caused by the virus has claimed about 6.9 million lives.  Cooperation rather than competition suddenly became the dominant trend  in the responses by different countries. The  global reach of the biological disaster caused  by  the pathogen has proved the World Health Organisation (WHO) right: “No one  is safe from COVID-19 until everyone is safe.” The interconnectedness of social and economic activities of peoples across nations was laid bare by COVID-19. The solution for the problem was not hinged on competition. With the coordination done by the WHO, solidarity was the watchword at the peak of the public health crisis. The outbreak of the disease was in China. Within months countries in the American continent already had their public health systems  overwhelmed by the disease.  Global supply chains were severely disrupted. The public health crisis triggered a socio-economic  crisis. Everywhere in the world people looked up to responsible governments to have a grip of things in combatting the spread of the virus and the disease caused by it. The  role of an effective state became central in the scheme of things. The quality of the public health system of each country was put to a monumental test.  The principle of solidarity was more prevalent than that of the market in the distribution of the vaccines developed to combat the disease. A take-away  from COVID-19 is that healthcare delivery is a public good. Investment in it should be informed by that logic.  

Climate change is another phenomenon that should temper humanity’s instinct for mindless  competition. Each sovereign nation or economic bloc  makes increased growth rate a  goal of its political economy. Economic advisers urge governments to make their national economies more competitive. Some nations have even been  reduced to “emerging markets”  that should be  made “competitive.”   Policies are implemented  in the pursuit of this  legitimate economic and social  objectives within their national  or regional boundaries. But the ecological consequences of these activities transcend boundaries. With the melting of sea ice and global warming, parts of the world are increasingly becoming inhabitable as result of floods, fires and atmospheric pollution. The climate change has shown that for centuries world capitalists hardly gave a thought to the condition of the earth as they pursued profits. That has been the mega trend since the industrial revolution.

The approach towards saving the  common habitat can only be that of cooperation and not competition. After all, regardless of the legality of national boundaries the habitat of humanity is the earth.

In response to existential risk of climate change world leaders came up with the “Paris Agreement” on how to address this common problem of humanity.  The agreement was drawn up in December  2015 at  the United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Paris, France.  It came into force  a year later . Essentially, it is a legally binding international treaty adopted by 196 parties  on  the way to tackle climate change. The major goal of the treaty is to keep “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 degrees centigrade above the pre-industrial levels” while striving to “to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees centigrade above the pre-industrial levels.” Social and economic transformation would be required to achieve the purpose of the agreement. Eventually, it would lead to a global transition to clean energy. Again, the underpinning principle is that of cooperation and solidarity and not competition. It cannot be competition any more because the excessive competition for economic growth and   years  of  mindless consumerism are partly responsible for the present state of global ecology. Rich nations are expected to demonstrate solidarity with poor ones in environmental distress. Developed countries made the pledge to provide the finance, technology and capacity building for the poor countries to join the train moving towards a significant reduction in carbon emission. Unfortunately, a  sense of urgency is lacking on the part of the rich countries. They are yet  to demonstrate in action that the treaty is indeed binding on them as their  commitments are hardly  fulfilled.

Inequality is a social plaque that exists among nations and within nations. A majority of the human population  has been excluded from partaking in the benefits of globalisation. Individualism and greed have widened the social gulf within nations. In 1944,  the International Labour Organisation (ILO), one the oldest UN agencies,  declared in Philadelphia, United States that “poverty anywhere constitutes a threat to prosperity anywhere.” The truism of that statement today is indisputable. The social convulsions are  experienced in poor and rich countries alike are  proofs  of the veracity of  that declaration.    So it is apposite for the UN to make poverty reduction a top most goal on its agenda. The migrant crisis afflicting parts of Europe is also a reminder that tackling global poverty  requires more of cooperation than competition. As the proceedings of the 78th UN General Assembly continue, more than 7,000 migrants are having an immigration battle with officials in the Lampedusa Island in southern Italy. The migrant crisis has again demonstrated the fact the mass poverty and widening inequality are common problems of humanity. The  migrants from the poor countries of the south are asserting their common humanity to the face of  the people in the rich countries of the north by forcing their way through the borders in pursuit of better life. It is clear that the migrants have no respect for the legality of the borders. That is their own  form of globalisation. This has become a moral crisis for European countries. After all, centuries  ago there were earlier forms of globalisation in which slave traders, pirates and colonial agents  backed  by  European monarchies and governments  rampaged other parts of the world taking human beings and wealth to their countries. For instance, in  those epochs there were no  borders and no one  issued the Europeans any visa to come to Africa.  

Solidarity is, therefore proposed as an element in the process of finding definitive solutions to these common problems of humanity.

Reflecting on these big issues, Oxford  University philosopher, Toby Ord,  says that given the grave nature of the risk  humanity faces the first thing to do  is to take urgent action that could make the world reach “a place of safety”  so as to allow time for further reflection about the future. In his book entitled “The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity,” Ord makes the following proposition: “If we steer humanity to a place of safety, we will have time to  think. Time to ensure that our choices are wisely made; that we will do the very best we can with our piece of the cosmos. We rarely reflect on what that might be. On what we might achieve should humanity’s entire will be focused on gaining it, freed from material scarcity and internal conflict. Moral philosophy has been focused on the more pressing issues of treating each other decently in a world of scarce resources. But there may come, time, not too far away, when we mostly have our house in order and can look in earnest at where we might go from here. Where we might address this vast question about our ultimate values.

This is the Long Reflection.”

As the world leaders are making their great  speeches in New York, it is important for the rest of us to focus our reflection on these mega trends. 

The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has revealed that for Nigeria to curtail the increasing number of Out-Of-School children in the country, an additional 20,000 schools and 907,769 classrooms must be provided.

Recall that in 2022, there were controversies surrounding the actual number of OSCs in the country.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) had said that the total of OSC in the nation were more than 20 million but UBEC said the figure is slightly above 10 million.

The Executive Secretary, of UBEC, Dr. Hamid Boboye while briefing the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman and the Minister of State, Dr. Yusuf Sununu, in Abuja on Tuesday said the country will need an additional 20,000 schools and 907,769 classrooms to absorb the growing number.

Boboye also identified infrastructural gaps and inadequate manpower as some of the challenges limiting the commission’s efforts towards ensuring equitable access to quality basic education.

Reacting to the UBEC demands, the Mamman said the foundational level of education is the most important background for excellence and must be prioritized at every level.

Mamman reiterated that his administration is keen on placing the education sector at the forefront of global standards and recognition.

He also charged States Government, agencies to commit to providing counterpart funding to harness the development of basic education in the country.

Speaking on the controversies surrounding the actual number of OSCs in the country, the minister said the forthcoming National Census will put an end to the issue.