1. Buhari Responds To David Cameron’s Corruption Comment About Nigeria
buhari-and-cameron
The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has on Tuesday responded to David Cameron, The UK Prime Minster’a comment where he described Nigeria as a “Fantastically corrupt” country.
The President, Muhammadu Buhari described the comment as embarrassing.
In a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES by his Senior Special Assistant on Media, Garba Shehu, shortly after the news of the Prime Minister’s comment went viral on the Internet, the a president said:
“This is embarrassing to us, to us say the least, given the good work that the President is doing, Mr. Buhari said. “The eyes of the world are on what is happening here.”
2. EFCC arrests Lagos lawyer, Adegboruwa for N61m scam
Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arrested popular Lagos-based lawyer, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, for an alleged N61m scam.
The EFCC said on its official Facebook page that Adegboruwa allegedly conspired with some persons to lease the property situated at House 105 Nicon Town Estate, Lekki Lagos, to one Shelf Drilling Nigeria Limited, in the sum of N61, 631,944.65. The said money was credited to his Zenith Bank’s account, from where he made disbursements. The matter will soon be charged to court.”
Adegboruwa burst into the limelight through activism as a Student Union President at the Obafemi Awolowo University in 1992.
However, he had in recent times openly defended several persons being investigated or tried by the EFCC.
3. FG set to establish six new varsities of science and technology
The Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, says the Federal Government is working toward establishing six new universities of science and technology to expand the access to tertiary education.
The Education Minister Malam Adamu Adamu, disclosed this at a News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum on Tuesday in Abuja.
In his words, “This government has already decided to even add more; it is going to establish six new universities of science and technology.
And at the lower level, there will be a technical school in each state of the federation and then vocational centres at the wards and local government levels.
You know, we have a problem of access; if you look at it last year, one million people sat for the universities but only 150,000 were taken.
So, we still need to build more universities to create more space for those who want to get in.
And then the fact that the six new universities are being created for science and technology underscores the decision by the government to put more emphasis on science”.
4. “We will create 210,000 jobs between now and 2018” – Dangote Group
Aliko Dangote - Bloomberg Billionaires Index - January 2014 - BellaNaija
The Chairman of Dangote Group of Companies, Alhaji Aliko Dangote on Tuesday said that his organisation would create 210,000 jobs for unemployed Nigerians between now and 2018. He said that 80 percent of the jobs would be in the agricultural sector.
Dangote said this in Katsina in a goodwill message at the opening of Katsina Economic and Investment Summit themed “Unlocking Investment Potentials for Sustainable Development”.
“We will create 210,000 jobs between now and 2018 with 80 percent coming from the agricultural sector. So, we should pay attention to the agricultural sector for investment opportunities, particularly when the crude oil is now becoming unreliable,” he said.
He also said that agriculture is a lifetime opportunity for Nigerian, adding that Brazil, which had same peculiarities with Nigeria, had $350 billion in its foreign reserves, with 80 percent of the fund attributed agriculture.
5. Shame! Germany to teach Nigerians cleanliness
To the eternal shame of some Nigerians who continued to be indifferent to their dirty environment, Germany is now proposing to teach us how to keep a clean environment.
The German Consul-General in Lagos, Mr Ingo Herbert, who made this known on Tuesday expressed his government’s readiness to include the importance of keeping a clean environment in its cultural exchange with Nigeria.
Herbert said it was imperative for Nigerians to begin to imbibe the culture of keeping their neighborhoods clean at all times.
“Our new plan of cultural exchange with Nigeria, is to begin to use films to tell Nigerians of the importance of keeping their environment clean. Nigerians need to desist, for instance, from dumping garbage into the creeks, drains along the roadsides, streets and other unauthorized places,’’ he said.
6. Police save frustrated woman from suicide
The Police in Imo have rescued a female staff of the Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education, Owerri, from committing suicide.
A witness narrated that the woman in her early 40s climbed a water tank stanchion, about the height of a three-storey building, from where she threatened to jump down.
The witness said that the woman was shouting at the top of the stanchion before people in the neighbourhood noticed her.
He said the neighbours then alerted two policemen who climbed the facility and pleaded with the woman before she came down at about 6.30 a.m.
The Public Relations Officer of the Imo Police Command, DSP Andrew Enwerem, confirmed the incident.
Enwerem said that the woman attempted to take her life but was rescued unhurt by policemen who were invited by her neighbours.
According to the police spokesman, preliminary information obtained from the woman showed that she was a Staff of the Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education, Owerri.
“The woman climbed a high water tank stanchion as early as 6 a.m. and was shouting on top of her voice that she was frustrated and tired of life,’’ he said.
7. Gunmen attack Rivers judiciary complex, kill two
The Rivers State Judiciary complex, which houses the Rivers State High Court, has been closed down after gunmen invaded the court premises, killing two private security personnel attached the institution.
At the moment, the cause of the killing has not been ascertained, but security operatives have been deployed in the court premises.
It was learnt that the gunmen had invaded the judiciary complex late last night and attacked their victims leaving two dead and another hospitalised.
An employee of the judiciary told The PUNCH they had been asked go home for the moment following the incident.
8. Pandemonium as women protest naked in Ebonyi
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There was pandemonium at Nkwegu community near Abakaliki, capital of Ebonyi state as over 200 women from Afikpo South Council area of Ebonyi state protested naked over the alleged continued detention of the President General of the community, Ndubuisi Ekumankama. He was detained by the police for allegedly demolishing a widow’s house in Amangwu Edda community.
The women, who had planned to storm the Government House in protest were intercepted by policemen at the Nkwegu, near military cantonment when they resisted the first team of policemen who could not withstand the sight of the rampaging naked women.
Daily Sun gathered that the women protested without wearing anything at the upper parts of their body which threw many into confusion, including the policemen.
However, it took the intervention of the Police Commissioner, CP Peace Ibekwe Abdallah who immediately mobilised another team of policewomen led by the Officer in charge of Criminal Investigation Department, who led other policewomen to the scene.
9. Moslem Ban: Trump to make ‘exception’ for new London mayor
Trump-and-Khan
The United States presidential hopeful in November 2016 election, Mr.Donald Trump has said that the newly elected mayor of London , Sadiq Khan would be an “exception” to his proposed ban on Muslims travelling to the US.
Khan had , because of his faith, expressed concern that he would not be able to visit the US if Mr Trump were elected.
Mr Trump proposed a ban on Muslims entering the US after attacks in Paris killed 130 people last year.
But in his response to this concern, the Republican businessman said “there will always be exceptions.”
The temporary ban has been widely criticised in the US and abroad but Mr Trump has stood by the proposal, saying it is needed to ensure US security.
Mr Trump said he was “happy” that Mr Khan would be leading London.
“If he does a good job and frankly if he does a great job, that would be a terrific thing,” he added.
Mr Khan – the son of Pakistani immigrants – is London’s first Muslim mayor, after beating Conservative rival Zac Goldsmith for the Labour Party by 1,310,143 votes to 994,614.
“I want to go to America to meet with and engage with American mayors,” Mr Khan told Time magazine. “If Donald Trump becomes the president I’ll be stopped from going there by virtue of my faith.”
He added that he was “confident that Donald Trump’s approach to politics” would not prevail in America.
10. A Robot Has been Teaching Grad Students Since January and None of Them Knew Until They Were Told
Artificial Intelligence
Professor Ashok Goel teaches Knowledge Based Artificial Intelligence (KBAI) at Georgia Institute of Technology. It is a core course for the online Master of Science in Computer Science programme. Goel estimates that about 10,000 questions are posted in the online forum for the course anytime he teaches the course.
Goel used to have 8 teaching assistants, but when the work became too much for them, he decided to add a ninth – a robot named Jill Watson, designed using IBM’s Watson Analytics System.
According to Goel “The world is full of online classes, and they’re plagued with low retention rates…. One of the main reasons many students drop out is because they don’t receive enough teaching support. We created Jill as a way to provide faster answers and feedback.”
Goel and his team of researchers tracked down all the questions (about 40,000) that had been asked on the forum and fed Jill the questions and answers.
According to Goel, “One of the secrets of online classes is that the number of questions increases if you have more students, but the number of different questions doesn’t really go up. Students tend to ask the same questions over and over again.”
Jill has been responding to emails posted on the forum since January, and none of the students knew she was a robot until they were told. She responded with words like “yep”, and “we’d loved to” to some of the emails sent in by students.
Describing Jill, one of the students, Gavin said, “It seemed very much like a normal conversation with a human being,”
On finding out that Jill is a robot, another student said, “I was flabbergasted”. Petr Bela, another student even wanted to nominate her as an outstanding teaching assistant.
Goel estimates that within a year, Jill will be able to answer about 40% of student’s questions, freeing the humans to tackle the more technical and philosophical inquiries, such as “How do you define intelligence?”
According to Goel, Jill should not be confused with customer-service chatbots that “operate at the level of a novice”. “Jill operates at the level of an expert,” he said.
The American businessman and politician is into television and real estate. Credit: AP
Dangote wants to make Nigeria a proud country again with a rather ambitious project; a mega refinery. The expansive refinery reportedly costs $9b and will be among the world’s largest when completed, with an estimated 650,000 barrels of crude oil being refined there per day. Credit: Various
Adenuga’s Globacom is the second largest telco in Nigeria. Credit: Various
Yemi Alade and DavidoNigerian singer, Yemi Alade is the latest pop star to get featured on New York’s Fader Magazine after the likes of Wizkid, Davido andBurna Boy.
