₦airaland Forum

The University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) has announced its intention to close its portal for the uploading of results for the 2019 Joint Universities Preliminary Examinations Board (JUPEB) at midnight, August 20, 2019.

The decision, however turned out to be an unpopular one, as candidates from other JUPEB centres who had preselected UNILORIN as their choice of institution for admission but were yet to receive their results, kicked against the sudden rush by the university to close its portal.

One of the candidates who spoke to our medium on condition of anonymity, accused the management of foul play, stressing that while candidates of other universities who participated in the 2019 JUPEB exams were yet to receive their results, the internal candidates from UNILORIN who received theirs today, August 20, had been informed to immediately upload their results on the portal, which the management stated would be closed by midnight same day.


The aggrieved candidate berated the University of Ilorin for inordinately nursing plans to admit only students who sat for the exams in the institution while shutting out candidates from other institutions who chose UNILORIN as their preferred choice.

Another embittered candidate who confided to our reporters, urged the Federal Government and the National University Commission to intervene in the looming crisis before it escalates into a protest.

We also learnt that the management of the University of Ilorin, had yesterday issued a notice to all internal JUPEB candidates to immediately upload their results on the portal prior to the midnight deadline.

The message reads:

“This is to inform all students that the collection of results is tomorrow. Please you are expected to upload your results immediately you get it, because Unilorin portal will close at exactly 12 midnight, 20th August, 2019. Upload as soon as you get your results irrespective of your points to be on the safe side.

“Time: 10am, Venue: Science Education at Mr Badmus’ office.”

JUPEB is one of the available options to gain admission into Nigerian universities.


https://www.fidelinfo.com/2019/08/20/unilorins-move-to-close-portal-causes-stir-as-students-threaten-to-protest/

DemolaUnbias:
Proud of you, Omo Olupo ni Ajase Ipo, Kwara State.. Continue with your good work Allah Rahaman wld surely reward you

Is he from Kwara?

Acedave1:
Abeg which position kano pillars and eyimba fc dey cos naija no dey carry last

Second last.

By Zikeyi John.

Christianity in Nigeria, on the evidence of filled church pews and mega-crusades, each heaving with millions of worshippers at any given time, appear to be in rude health. The perception of the faith being in robust health finds expression in statements such as “the Devil is a liar”, “the gates of Hell shall not prevail” and “the Kingdom of Christ is marching on”. That church leaders in Nigeria have grown in influence, often provoking the type of adulation reserved for pop stars, is taken as confirmation of the belief that, indeed, “the Kingdom of Christ is marching on”.

But looked at very closely, Christianity in Nigeria is everything but in rude health. It is actually ailing and may find itself in the Intensive Care Unit sooner than later. The signs of ill-health are bold, but are confused, sometimes wilfully, with something else.

There is a need to make a clarification. This writer has no intention to scare. What this piece seeks to do is show that the trumpeted robust health of Christianity in the country is actually a prelude to the erosion of its status and influence, a development that will be marked by huge reduction in the country’s Christian population and by extension a sharp dip in Christian influence on socio-political affairs.

There is a temptation to view this as alarmist. After all, the pews are still filled for services; crusades continue to draw more worshippers and church coffers brimming with seed and tithes. Church leaders have also become some of the country’s most influential celebrities.

Take a step back and you may begin to see that the bullish claim that “the Kingdom of Christ is marching on” is made by rote and certainly not founded proper analysis or introspection.

First, as a religion, Christianity is endangered and looks more likely to lose its influence as time goes on. According to a recent report by the Pew Research Centre, the US fact tank, 9.5 per cent of the world’s Muslim population by 2060 will be Nigerians. Four years ago, according to the fact tank, Nigeria was home to 5.1 per cent of the global Muslim population. It is, therefore, projected that the Muslim population in Nigeria would have leapt from a little over 90million (50 per cent) in 2015 to 283.1million (60.5 per cent) by 2060. The number of Christians in the country, 86.6million as at 2015 (48.1 per cent of local population), is expected to rise to 174.2million (37.2 per cent of local population) by 2060. As at 2015, Nigeria had 3.8 per cent of the global Christian population. This figure, according to the US fact tank, will climb to 5.7 per cent by 2060. In any language, this spells a reduction in the local Christian population from 48.1 per cent to 37.2 per cent and a steady march of Islam around the world, including in Nigeria. By that projection, there would be 108millon more Muslims than Christians in 2060 with dire consequences for Christians in the political space.

Islam has remained the world’s fastest growing religion and is expected to continue growing in the number of adherents and, naturally, in influence. Its encouragement of polygamy puts it an advantage, locally and globally, at having far more adherents in the near future. Between 2010 and 2015, it was estimated that 31 per cent of babies born all over the world were of Muslim parentage. The projection is that by 2035, children born to Muslim parents will comfortably outnumber those born to Christians worldwide.

The projected reduction in local Christian population portends, as earlier stated, the diminution in the influence of Christianity in the country’s socio-political sphere. With religion a huge determinant in national politics, Islam will be at massive advantage. It is currently enjoying that and stands to continue doing so by the time the next elections come around. In view of this, the idea that a Christian president is a possibility by 2023, when Nigerians vote next, is a little more than implausible. This is especially so on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) which, from all indications, appears to be religiously insensitive.

I project that by 2023, Islam in Nigeria would have disappeared into the horizon that Christianity would require a pair of binoculars to catch a glimpse of it. That projection is based on what I think leaders of the Christian faith in the country place the accent on: Lush life-on the sweat of millions of Christians they claim to lead. The country’s Pentecostal landscape, which currently stands as the face of Christianity, is teeming with preachers, who seem to think that ownership of private jets, gleaming cathedrals, establishment of educational institutions their members cannot afford and, most sadly, using their privileged position to obtain patronage from the same people oppressing Christians are the equivalent of providing leadership. The hollow prosperity theology, which teaches that financial well-being of adherents is directly linked to seed sowing and tithing, is bereft of Christianity’s transcendental goal, which teaches believers that that there is more to life than the satisfaction of immediate material needs of hunger and poverty.

Rather than this noble goal, it has commodified Christ and showing its exponents in the same light as the grasping political elite. The commodification of Christianity has had the eminently unfortunate effect of sowing disunity among Christians, who are supposed to speak with one voice against the dangers to their spiritual and material well-being. The Pentecostal explosion has seen those who lost their jobs or excommunicated from other churches announce themselves as “General Overseers” and begin a scramble for relevance. This category, desperate to thrive, targets members of the mainline churches by calumniating their doctrines. And when they begin to thrive, the newly-minted General Overseers fish for members in older evangelical ministries, leaving a long trail of bad blood.

Less important, if at all, to the leaders of the faith in Nigeria is the need to address societal problems through adequate mobilization of Christians to demand social justice. A view, which I agree with, is that the church has aligned itself with the oppressors of the masses. Politicians, sadly including people of other religious persuasions, are routinely permitted to use Christian gatherings for speaking and photo opportunities in pursuit of their political agenda, while private sector criminals, such as bankers, are given front-row seats in Christian gatherings. These steps of the church make it less credible as a moral voice in achieving the desired socio-political and economic liberation in Nigeria.

There is no need sugar-coating Christianity’s outlook in Nigeria. Despite the long and loud claim that “the Kingdom of Christ is marching on”, the faith is in a bad place. For Christianity to regain its fast-dissipating influence, its leaders need to act and very fast, too. First, there must be robust and consistent prophetic denunciation of the oppressive mechanism. The prophetic stance of the church obligates her to confront and challenge the systems of corruption and injustice, which exploit and deprive Christians by criticizing and judging them by Christian standards.

In addition, the church needs to understand the context in which it operates in Nigeria and to encourage its members to participate actively and fully in the political process, being not ashamed to use their faith as bargaining chips for 2023.

Very importantly, the conversion of the ordinary man must run along with the aforesaid. The church’s mission in Nigeria goes beyond commitment to philanthropic activism, protesting against social injustice and mobilizing people for active participation in social transformation. While the church seeks socio-political and economic liberation, it must be relentless in seeking the spiritual liberation of the people. Conversion will fight depletion in Christian ranks as well as ensure that social change bears lasting fruits.



Zikeyi John writes from Abraka, Delta State.

zikeyijohn@yahoo.com


https://insiderng.net/2019/07/21/opinion-christianity-in-nigeria-irrelevance-looms/

PhenomenalMorgan:
You would have gotten a brand new S8+ for that price, a way better deal!!

Check the specs for S8 and this. You will understand why I chose the A70

Phone that I've been using since April. It's a nice phone sha. Bought it for 139k. But its worth the price.

Tamasaba:
Who school help? Naso una go push youths go school. After school you go tell them say work no dey say make them go learn handwork. Nonsense. Illiteracy don take over. School dey favour people like u wey dem dey pay as visiting lecturer for different universities. U just dey talk to protect ur interest and customers(students). Without students them fire u. Nonsense

You are one of the youths Soyinka just talked about. Full of ego, unproductive and all knowing even when what they think they know is irrelevant.

Home Opinion Opinion ICPC Persecution: Modibbo Kawu, Pinnacle Communications and their traducers By Abubakar Mahmoud Ahmed - July 8, 20191 Ishaq Modibbo Kawu, NBC Director-General ICPC Persecution: Modibbo Kawu, Pinnacle Communications and their traducers NEWS DIGEST – I almost missed the early morning train from Kaduna to Abuja last Thursday, July 4th, 2019. I wanted to be in court early, to get a seat to await the arrival of the immediate past Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Muhammed, as a prosecution witness, in the case of ICPC versus Malam Modibbo Kawu, the DG of NBC, and Pinnacle Communications Limited. My curiosity was fueled by a few factors; the first was that from all that we have heard about this strange court case, Alhaji Lai Muhammed was the approval authority for the N2.5billion that NBC paid to Pinnacle Communications Limited, on the back of the job the company is doing for the Nigerian Digital Switchover (DSO). I recall watching Alhaji Lai Muhammed on live television, in December 2016, showering encomiums on the feat achieved by Pinnacle Communications Limited, which allowed the initiation of DSO in the FCT and by implication the announcement of Nigeria that the DSO had indeed arrived. Lai Muhammed was, proudly, the man at the center of attraction on the occasion. Television pictures do not lie. So it has not ceased to amaze me, that the former Minister would approve the release of the funds, and from the period that the ICPC story broke, the same former Minister refused to come out publicly to either accept responsibility for the payment confirming his initial and only approval, or denounce it. It took the ICPC to return to court last Monday, to present amended charges, that accused Malam Modibbo Kawu of having “misled” the former Minister, yes “misled”, Lai Muhammed to approve the release of a grant to Pinnacle Communications Limited. Like almost every Nigerian observer of the strange court case, I wanted to hear how the former Minister would argue that point in court. Unfortunately, the ICPC didn’t present Lai Muhammed. We arrived in court on Thursday to be fed the spectacle of procedural arguments about whether Lai should or shouldn’t be in court at all. On a day of anti-climax, the presiding judge adjourned to October 2nd, 2019. It was the eve of the annual judicial vacation, and we all left the courts rather disappointed. The ICPC was unable to present the remaining prosecution witnesses. From checks I’ve made on this case, things won’t have come as far, had Lai Muhammed as a responsible leader, taken the responsibility of his position, soon as the ICPC waded into the issue, to offer the correct explanation about the payment he approved. After all, the process started in 2014, under the then Jonathan administration, when Pinnacle Communications Limited won a competitive bid to become the Second National Signal Distributor for the DSO. The shameless Lai Muhammed hoped that the bizarre ICPC issue offered an opportunity to remove Modibbo Kawu as DG of NBC. From my investigations and checks with sources at the Federal Ministry of Information in Abuja, and those who know Kwara State politics, Lai Muhammed had many issues against Modibbo Kawu. One was related to the manner that Kawu was said to protect the independence of the NBC; an official of the Federal Ministry of Information described Lai Muhammed as a “control freak”, who wanted the agencies he supervised to be run like departments of the Ministry having inherited these agencies and supervised them without Boards for several months. Modibbo Kawu was said to defend the independence of the NBC; for that, Lai Muhammed is said to describe Kawu as “arrogant”. Lai Muhammed was also said to be uncomfortable with contacts that Modibbo Kawu has within the structures of government, especially amongst people of Northern extraction. Consequently, he is reported to take every opportunity to attempt to destroy Kawu’s reputation with people in government. The final point of Lai Muhammed’s grouse with Modibbo Kawu, was said to be the fact that in 2018 Kawu attempted to be gubernatorial candidate of the APC in Kwara State. Lai Muhammed, as “APC leader in Kwara State”, took it as a personal affront, and was said to have vowed to ensure Modibbo Kawu didn’t get the ticket, and is removed as DG of NBC. Those who know, are therefore not surprised at how Lai Muhammed has behaved, over the ICPC issue. But they also add that Lai Muhammed has hurt himself, far more than he probably thought. When he enters the witness box as a prosecution witness, he would have to explain how Modibbo Kawu “misled” him, to do the right and legally defensive thing by approving the grant to Pinnacle Communications Limited, that he praised so enthusiastically, at not only the commissioning of the Abuja DSO Centre, in December 2016 but also the Kaduna DSO Centre in December 2017. My investigation reveals that Modibbo Kawu and Pinnacle Communications Limited, have many traducers, and these agents of darkness ,are a very desperate lot. They are all united around a few issues. The first is that Modibbo Kawu as DG of NBC, is not in their pocket, and so is not amenable to the incredibly corrupt process that they instituted within the NBC system immediately preceding the Kawu era. Some of them describe Kawu as “very arrogant”, quoting the words of letters that he writes in replies to communications with errant stakeholders as examples of such “arrogance”. In recent times, I found out that some of these stakeholders in the broadcast sector have become the new hiding place, from which some of Modibbo Kawu’s traducers are attempting to launch campaigns of vilification against him. The main individuals pushing these campaigns are perceived as major success stories in the Nigerian broadcast media but majorly indebted to the NBC as well as a former NTA DG who wants to remain relevant in the field of mass communications. These individuals are hiding behind a few members of the some regional associations to rake up all kinds of incoherent accusations against Kawu. Similarly, those who lost out when the current Board of NBC cancelled an illegality that was termed the “content aggregation” license improperly issued, have been fighting dirty against both Modibbo Kawu and Pinnacle Communications Limited. My sources informed me that some arrowheads of the illegal contraption, worked with insiders in NBC, to take out official documents which they handed over to a renowned broadcast content piracy company by the name of Communications Trends Limited, headed by an Engineer Uzo Udemba. This entity was discovered to have been sponsoring several publications and funding negative social media articles against the DSO project, especially since Kawu became DG of NBC, and the DSO appears to be on course. What I further confirmed, is that Uzo Udemba, has been in the content piracy “business” for 26 years. His company specializes in hacking Set Top Boxes (Decoders) from the Middle East, Europe, China and Africa, so that broadcast content can be accessed without license. The hacked and pirated materials are then put up for sale as the pirate company’s content. So far the company is said to have over 35,000 subscribers and these subscribers pay a monthly subscription of N3, 150.00. Uzo Udemba was said to have told people around him, that he would not allow a successful DSO, because such a success will take him out of his piracy “business”. He then vowed that he would deploy a lot of resources into a major campaign to discredit Kawu as DG of the NBC, as well as Pinnacle Communications Limited (that is the biggest single investor in the DSO project). And in this despicable campaign, he found willing collaborators inside the NBC; these are members of management & staff said to be on his payroll for years, as well as those that had been on retainership, in the corruption gravy train from the Emeka Mba years at the NBC. There is also a certain Toyin Subair, whose hands can be found in almost every single element of the DSO project, right from when Emeka Mba was the DG of NBC. He single handedly convinced Emeka Mba to drop the company that actually won the competitive bid, to choose what is called “Middleware” for the DSO. Subair got Emeka Mba to pick instead a disqualified company. Further findings at a public hearing the House of Representatives on the DSO in 2017 revealed that Emeka Mba paid that disqualified entity of Toyin Subair a sum in excess of N1.7billion. This was even before the entity was legally registered in Nigeria. Other sweetheart deals between Emeka Mba and Toyin Subair extended to the illegally licensed content aggregator, as well as the contracting of an international satellite company, which I was informed, provides satellite services for the Nigerian DSO, at costs way beyond the best international competitive costs. Toyin Subair is reported to have Lai Muhammed’s listening ear, as Minister of Information. He was said to present to Lai Muhammad his own personal business interests as those of former Governor Bola Tinubu, in order to get Lai Muhammed to force Modibbo Kawu’s hands at the NBC. At another level, the same individual was reported to be seeking close business relationships with Pinnacle Communications Limited; but at the same time, he works intimately with Dele Alake, the Redeemed Church candidate being positioned to become NBC DG (if, Allah forbids, they can consummate the conspiracy to remove Modibbo Kawu), to recruit social media rats and “civil society activists”, to launch regular negative campaigns against Modibbo Kawu and Pinnacle Communications Limited. One major traducer that must be called out is a certain Hakeem Lawal, a top shot in the ICPC whose name has come up severally in the course of the witch-hunt currently going on at the Federal High Court. This man has been on a personal campaign against Modibbo Kawu and Pinnacle Communications Limited, as an agent of certain political forces, who are positioning for the 2023 elections. The thread from Hakeem Lawal is sewn through the office of the Chairman of the ICPC, into that of the Chief of Staff of a National political office holder of south West extraction. It is this same Chief of Staff that has been directing the media trial against Modibbo Kawu and Pinnacle Communications Limited, using especially PREMIUM TIMES, THE PUNCH and the SUN newspapers. At the heart of this for Hakeem Lawal and his masters, is control of the regulatory power that the NBC represents, in the calculations for power, in the lead to the 2023 elections. Now they are moving from the court case, which is looking like one they would collapse like a pack of cards, to a new campaign, woven around the licenses that the President Muhammadu Buhari approved in September 2018. The political group that Hakeem Lawal works for, have been particularly unhappy, that there was remarkable equity in the licensing that President Muhammadu Buhari approved; the single largest number of licenses ever issued, since the beginning of the NBC. And for the first time, Northerners were issued licenses, in the profitable Lagos broadcasting market. For the political group that Hakeem Lawal works for, that fact was actually seen as one of the major “crimes” committed by Modibbo Kawu; to dare ensure that Northern-owned broadcasting stations would be present in Lagos. They seem to have completely lost all rationality, because no one can query the powers of the President, to approve licenses for whomsoever he chooses. That Hakeem Lawal is able to abuse his public office by pirating ICPC’s statutory investigative functions to achieve the clandestine political agenda of geo-political cult leader to the detriment of the Federal Government’s DSO project presents another sordid aspect of the unfolding scam. It has since come to light that Hakeem Lawal is the point man in a hideous witchunting syndicate in the ICPC that is at the disposal of all sorts of disgruntled people who have sn axe to grind with any high ranking public servant or public office holder in a government institution. All you need is a contrived petition raising outrageous allegations against the targeted person and an “influential”political or financial leverage over Hakeem Lawal and the hatchet job commences with investigators one side and the ICPC media unit on the other orchestrating the crudest form of media trial. It can even lead to malicious arraignment before high courts where the stark incompetence of ICPC’s prosecutors is shamelessly displayed. Ask anyone following the spurious case against Ishaq Modibbo Kawu and Pinnacle Communications Limited for deplorable details! Sadly, the appointment of a supposedly new board for ICPC had no corrective effect because the geo-political cultists hand picked the members and Hakeem Lawal has good company. The growing number of bungled ICPC cases thrown out by flabbergasted judges and loud protests from victims of media trials such as the victimized CEO of the federal bulk electricity trading company are pungent pointers to the decadence in ICPC which powerful parochial politicians cannot hide! I have spent six months to put this investigative piece together. Nigerians must know the truth. Malam Modibbo Kawu is a patriot working for the very best interest of our country. And Pinnacle Communications Limited is a private company with a strong ethical business practice, that has over the past 25 years delivered many successful broadcasting projects all over Nigeria. In a sane setting, these people would be celebrated, not persecuted and face an unnecessary trial. I however believe that they will be vindicated; it’s just a matter of time.

ABUBAKAR MAHMOUD AHMED RETIRED JOURNALIST, PUBLIC AFFAIRS CONSULTANT AND HADITH SCHOLAR, LIVES IN KURMIN MASHI, KADUNA

https://newsdigest.ng/opinion/2019/07/08/icpc-persecution-modibbo-kawu/

When National WAVES published the story that the former Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed accepted responsibility for the payment of N2.5 billion paid to Pinnacle Communications Ltd on our website, our editor’s mobile phone was abuzz with calls demanding for evidence..

Below are copies of Alhaji Lai Mohammed’s statement as obtained from the court.


http://www.nationalwaves-ng.com/document-shows-that-lai-mohammed-approved-the-n2-5billion-payment-to-pinnacle-communications/

Former Minister of Information Lai Mohammed has finally made a statement to the ICPC investigators taking responsibility for the approval of the N2.5 billion payment to Pinnacle Communications Limited by the National Broadcasting Commission under the Digital Switch Over (DSO) project.

In his statement dated June 13, 2019, made available to defence counsel in the alleged fraud case brought against the NBC DG Ishaq Modibbo Kawu and executives of Pinnacle Communications Limited, Lai Mohammed said he approved the payment “on the strength of” particular reference to section 11.2 (c) of the White Paper governing Implementation of the DSO in Nigeria by the NBC DG in recommending the payment to him for approval.

Lai .Mohammed said section 11.2(c) of the White Paper “directed the NBC to put in place necessary conditions and ensure that close to a level playing field is achieved in reference to the significant advantage over new entrants enjoyed in the DSO ecosystem by the Government Signal Distributor, in this case the ITS that came out of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) which already had 157 transmission sites spread across Nigeria.”


The former minister added that the recommendation letter from NBC also recalled that ITS had already been paid N1.7 billion for DSO rollout in three states and therefore noted that the payment of N2.5 billion to Pinnacle Communications Limited would represent close to a level playing field that the White Paper called for.

https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2019/07/04/n2-5-billion-payment-to-pinnacle-lai-mohammed-takes-responsibility/

The Director General of the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, Mallam Isaq Modibbo Kawu, says the new broadcasting code billed for launch tomorrow, in Kano will reposition the Nigerian broadcasting landscape and address the preponderance of hate speech and fake news that characterise the industry.

He said the new code will reflect some of the recommendations made by the committee constituted by the Commission to review the 2015 general elections with a view to taming the menace of hate speech and unprofessional conduct of some media practitioners in the country.

The code is actually the 6th edition and was prepared since 2017. Kawu said the launch was delayed due to a combination of issues.

According to him, “I can confirm to you that work on the 6th Edition of The Code had been completed since 2017, but it has not been released since then due to a combination of circumstances. We hope that when launched, it will not only complement the existing codes but help in repositioning the broadcasting landscape in this country.”

He also used the opportunity to explain the government’s readiness to complete the digital switchover project despite the paucity of funds. He said the Commission has embarked on an elaborate rollout plan in all the six geopolitical zones of the country, especially Lagos, Port Harcourt and Kano where potential investors are eager to move in and explore the vast opportunities in the project.

He said: “We are about to conclude the installation of facilities for Gombe; while the stakeholders are determined to move into the biggest media markets of Lagos, Kano and Port Harcourt in the near future. That is part of an elaborate nation-wide rollout plan, along with a definitive timeline for the switch off of Analogue transmission in Jos, Abuja, Ilorin, Kaduna, Enugu, and Osogbo”.

He said a new timetable will be released once it has been approved by the Board of the Commission but, however, assured that the Commission will direct that PAY TV operators desist from the further carriage of free terrestrial TV channels as soon as analogue Switch off is concluded.

Kawu also decried the attitude of some broadcast stations owing the Commission over N4billion on license renewal, warning that the big hammer may fall on them in no distant time.

He regretted that “many conspiracy theories challenging smooth regulation of broadcasting in Nigeria have slowed the wheel of progress. We are in an era of persistent pattern of refusal to renew operating licenses. This has led to over N4 billion owed to NBC. We are also challenged by perceived big operators who do not want to be regulated. They owe and want to be allowed to determine what to pay. It’s a very pathetic situation”, he added.

The prosecution counsel of the ICPC has failed to prove the corruption allegations leveled at the DG National Broadcasting Commission, Mal. Is'haq Modibbo Kawu and two others who are executives of a signal distribution company, Pinnacles Communication Limited.

The court which sat last week where the prosecution brought two of its witnesses at the close of hearing today, adjourned following the inability of the prosecution to present the additional witnesses which it was to bring today.

It will be recalled that the prosecution already applied to bring two additional witnesses, in person of Alh. Lai Mohammed who was the minister of Information and culture, a ministry that oversees the activities of the NBC as well as a Bureau De Change operative but none was at today's hearing.

The court also heard the motion filed by the defence which prayed to allow the defendants take possession of their international passports after it was seized when the trial first began.

The judge couldn't rule on this as the prosecution said they could not verify one of the addresses of the sureties, a claim which was countered by the defence on grounds that corrections have been made to the claim and has been effected, served and made available to the court. The prosecution finally admitted that the objection earlier raised was in error and that he failed to file one of the papers which would be needed to continue proceedings.

The court finally adjourned till Thursday 4th July to continue the hearing.

https://globalete.com/2019/07/01/again-icpc-failed-to-prove-its-case-against-pinnacle-communication-limited-and-nbc-dg-as-court-adjourned/

The Director General of National Broadcasting Commission, Mallam Is'haq Modibbo Kawu today via a press briefing addressed newsmen with an up to date assessment of situation in his commission.

In his address, he reminded newsmen about the last time the commission met with them to announce the suspension of the licenses of DAAR Communications and a subsequent shutdown order.

"A lot happened in the days after; but the most significant, was the intervention of the Nigeria Press Organization (NPO), the umbrella body for all the leading institutions in the Nigerian media landscape. Under the auspices of the NPO; it’s National Chairman, Nduka Obaigbena, and respected elders, Uncle Sam Amuka and Alhaji Samaila Isa Funtua, the NBC met with DAAR Communications, to find an amicable resolution of the issues that led to the suspension of their licenses and subsequent issuance of a shutdown order." He said.



"After several meetings, we reached an agreement, which also became the basis of the court judgement that was delivered two days ago. We want to especially thank Uncle Sam Amuka, and Alhaji Samaila Isa Funtua, who hosted the conciliatory meetings, and especially Nduka Obaigbena, the Chairman of the NPO, for his remarkable effort in brokering the settlement. He ensured that NPAN did not join the bandwagon of an almost Pavlovian reflexive condemnation of the NBC, but chose instead, to find a way for the contending issues, between regulator and licensee, to be amicably resolved in the overall interest of the country.

For the information of our colleagues and all Nigerians, NBC and DAAR Communications Plc agreed as follows:

1. That DAAR Communications Plc shall furnish the National Broadcasting Commission with a concrete and realistic proposal for the payment of its outstanding license renewal fee for the National Network Broadcast License ( Radio/TV);
2. That DAAR Communications Plc shall take the necessary internal steps to ensure balance in its news coverage, especially political commentary on the DAAR Communications Plc stations across the country.
3. That DAAR Communications Plc shall take full editorial responsibility of the use of Content sourced from Social Media and all/ any other outlets
4. That DAAR Communications Plc shall ensure that all programs transmitted on its TV/Radio stations across the country comply with the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, the National Broadcasting Commission Act, Cap. NII, laws of the Federation, 2004 and the Nigeria Broadcasting Code as may be in force or/ and as amended from time to time.
5. That the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) shall withdraw forthwith, the suspension of the National Network Broadcast License (Radio/TV) of DAAR Communications Plc.

The terms of settlement were consequently filed and entered as the consent judgment of the court in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/C5/595/2019.

On the basis of the judgment, I will like to use this opportunity to inform the Nigerian public, that the NBC has withdrawn the suspension notice issued to DAAR Communications Plc. We want to reiterate our full confidence in the Nigerian legal system and we urge that DAAR Communications Plc, would take necessary steps to abide by the terms of settlement entered as judgment of the court.

As we all now know, the court accepted these terms as basis of the consent judgment and the Judge ruled accordingly. A careful reading of the terms of settlement, would show that the National Broadcasting Commission had operated STRICTLY according to its mandate, as enshrined in the Nigerian Constitution; the NBC ACT and the Nigeria Broadcasting Code. A lot of individuals and bodies interpreted our actions from various subjective prisms and launched scurrilous attacks on the NBC. An orchestrated media campaign was also launched with a desperate intention of De-legitimizing the National Broadcasting Commission’s regulatory functions and powers. But we will continue to FIRMLY operate at the most disciplined professional levels, and as the lawful regulatory body for broadcasting in Nigeria; just as we would not stop engaging with our licenses in the 726 Radio and television stations in our country. We do not relate with licensees on the basis of the political parties that they support, or any such subjective platforms. We hold our licensees to account only on the basis of their fidelity to the Nigeria Broadcasting Code." He continued.

" The duty of regulating broadcasting within the Nigerian socio-Political environment is a very challenging task. We are in a setting of unending conspiracy theories; a persistent pattern of refusal by many licensees to meet their licensing and other obligations; there is also a strange sense of entitlement, that is expressed in a pattern of name calling, blackmail and anger at being called to regulatory order; licensees often ignore the terms of their licenses and over the years, have accumulated debts totaling over four billion Naira owed to the National Broadcasting Commission, which they don’t expect to be reminded to pay or want to ever pay, and they also assume that the NBC dares not wield its regulatory powers. In recent times, the new pattern that has developed is that licensees are even telling the regulator how much they want to pay. And within this developing pattern of behavior, is the sustained campaign of negativity against the National Broadcasting Commission, in the conventional media and also, on social media platforms, where literally, a lynch mob was set forth against my own person. There is also the troubling pattern of leakage of official communications between the regulatory institution and licensees, on several social media platforms. These are the unfortunate fallouts that come from doing our very difficult job, but this is a job that is very necessary for the good order of our dear country."

But I want to re-iterate that there is no license that is too big or too small to be regulated. We are NOT and will NEVER be a censorship institution. The NBC ACT does not give us such power, and neither did the Nigeria Broadcasting Code. We remain a regulatory agency, that remains committed to ensuring that Nigerian Broadcasting, in the words of THE CODE “shall influence society positively, setting the agenda for the social, cultural, economic, political and technological development of (our) nation, for the public good”. In doing that we will firmly ensure, as THE CODE further stated, that “no broadcast shall encourage or incite to crime, lead to public disorder, be repugnant to public feeling or ...generally, be disrespectful to human dignity”. Our duty, according to THE CODE includes reminding our licensees that “...they exercise freedom of expression as agents of society, not for any personal or sectional rights, privileges and needs of their own or of their proprietors, relatives, friends or supporters”. Our regulatory duty is carried out to ensure that Nigerian Broadcasting “adheres to the general principles of legality, decency, truth, integrity and respect for human dignity as well as the cultural, moral and social values of the people”.

We will therefore deepen dialogue with the Broadcasting Organizations of Nigeria (BON), so as to encourage , in the words of THE CODE, self-regulation within the framework of professional standards”; we will maintain our respect for the Nigeria Press Organization (NPO); and we would continue to fairly use THE CODE “to assist the public to uphold them as the benchmark for their ‘...right to quality broadcasting’”. Furthermore, “THE CODE is guided by the ideals of transparency, consistent with the best service delivery principles”.

He further gave an update on the LAUNCH OF THE 6TH EDITION OF THE NIGERIA BROADCASTING CODE.

This he said that the "Nigeria Broadcasting Code, 6th Edition (THE CODE) will be officially launched in Kano, next Thursday, July 4th, 2019. He further reminded stakeholders that work on the 6th Edition of THE CODE had been completed since 2017, but the commission have been unable to release it since then because of a combination of circumstances. Happily, the situation changed and we will be able to release the instrument to the Nigerian Broadcasting industry next week.



He also stated that even though THE CODE derives from the provisions of Section 2(1) (h) of THE ACT, the NBC nevertheless works very actively with the industry: broadcasters; media intellectuals and civil society groups working in the media, to ensure that we have an instrument that has been democratically produced by all of us. "We look forwards to receiving all our stakeholders and our colleagues in the media at the launch of THE 6th edition of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code in Kano, next Thursday." He said.

On the DIGITAL SWITCHOVER,

He informed the gathering that there have been positive developments. The Federal Government, and President Muhammadu Buhari, remains fully committed to the success of the project. We are working to conclude the installation of facilities for Gombe; while the stakeholders are determined to move into the biggest media markets of Lagos, Kano and Port Harcourt in the new future. That is part of an elaborate nation-wide roll out plan, along with a definitive timeline for the switch off of Analogue transmission in Jos, Abuja, Ilorin, Kaduna, Enugu and Osogbo. The new timetable will be released once it has been approved by the Board of the Commission. However, soon as we conclude the Analogue Switch off, we will direct that PAY TV operators desist from further carriage of free terrestrial TV channels. They would become available only on our Free TV proposition.

On the BREACH PROFILE OF BROADCAST STATIONS

The Quarterly release of the Breach Profile of Nigerian broadcast stations for the First Quarter of 2019 is ready. Four hundred and forty infractions were recorded in the periods 62 infractions are on the use of obscene materials; 203 were on Hate Speech and politics-related infractions; 55 for lack of professionalism; 54 for unverifiable claims; 17 were for technical breaches and 255 breaches were over advertisements. Out of the 444 infractions, 155 cases were penalized with various degrees of fines. We will like the public to note that the quarterly beach profile of broadcast stations is always made available on all our social media handles.

He finally thanked the stakeholders, Broadcasters and Nigerians for their support to the commission.

https://kaybaba.com.ng/nbc-dg-modibbo-kawu-gives-update-on-progress-made-in-his-commission/

PunchlineAmund:
Hello my fellow Nairalanders. Check out this fresh hot banger I just dropped. May all our various hustle pay oooooo




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4t7gt4tnTM

I love this...

valentineuwakwe:
that's the problem with Nigeria. ..someone will embezzled public funds and when you go after him or them, they will say its witch hunt.....the section of the country he came from will then the crying don't touch our child oo....so tell me how will this country grow?

Did you read the story at all? How is an agency who is acting on mere allegations, who could not do a due diligence report on a case be said to be fighting corruption?

@lalasticlala

The ongoing trial of the DG National Broadcasting Commission, Mallam Is'haq Modibbo Kawu and 2 others is one of the current judicial cases making the waves in Nigeria.

It all started in 2018 when the ICPC said it uncovered some discrepancies in the award of contracts to a private company by Mallam Modibbo Kawu led NBC. Since the first mention of the case in October, it has since emerged into a full fledged trial or more accurately a media trial since until now, the prosecutor has not substantiated its claims despite the heavy media frenzy the commission invoked towards the trial.

As an ardent follower of the case and broadcast enthusiast, I have since developed interest in the case in a bid to see through it just like most Nigerians who wants an end to the corrupt practices that has brought the country to where it is at the moment.

Today, I took my curiosity to the next level and decided to be a guest at the justice Folasade Giwa's court 8 at the Federal High Court, Abuja.

I came in with lots of questions and curiosity was of topmost interest. The hall was packed till capacity. Many even stood just to follow the now historic trial.

The prosecution brought in 2 out of the planned 4 witnesses. One was a Bureau De Change operator identified as Salisu Suleiman Daura who said he changed the sum of 97 million to dollars for one of the accused who is an executive at Pinnacles Communications Limited. He further acknowledged that he also changed the sum of 70 million Naira to its dollar equivalent on June 23rd 2017, the same month the debated sum of 2.5billion Naira was paid by the NBC to the company. He finally acknowledged that the sums of 97m and 70m were transferred to his account by Mr Lucky Omoluwa.

Next came in to the witness box was the principal witness in the case. The ICPC lead investigator Mr Osanoto Olugbemi Abraham. He acknowledged knowing the 2nd and 3rd defendant Mr Dipo Onifade and Mr Lucky Omoluwa. He said he was awarded the case by the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) after the suspicious transaction of 2.5 billion naira was discovered. He further said the commission swung into action and uncovered that one of the two companies which got the contract is a privately owned company. A decision which contravened the law.

He further said the main bone of contention is the award of contract by the NBC to a private company and perhaps the use of the money which the commission traced to various places.

The defence while questioning the witness asked about his knowledge of the white paper which was enacted to drive the digital switchover project, this he answered in the affirmative. The prosecution further asked if the witness who is the chief investigator studied the white paper which he also affirmed. The defence lawyer then pointed the attention of the court to section 11.2c which stated that "The NBCs should put in place an enabling environment for the licencing and achieving the DSO project." This by virtue of interpretation technically permits the NBC to award the contract to a private company if they can deliver diligently.

The defence also highlighted that the relationship of Pinnacle communication and NBC predates the era of Modibbo Kawu. Prior to his appointment, the company and NBC had been embroiled in a legal battle over payments for the services rendered to the commission by the company. It took the intervention of Kawu before the suit was resolved. Following the resolution, the company in 2016 without even being paid by the NBC already set up transmission equipments which marked the launch of the DSO project in Abuja. Vice president, Yemi Osinbajo represented President Mohammadu Buhari in commissioning the Abuja DSO project in December 2016.

The initial allegations that the NBC paid a private company in doing nothing other than to distribute public funds to private coffers was clearly proved by the defence to be not just an outrageous allegation but also the fact that the ICPC through it's investigators failed to do a good job in their investigations.

When the defence asked the witness whether there was a report or complaints of wrongdoing from any of the parties, which could have triggered the investigation from the commission, as such had always been the case with similar situations, he replied that there was none.

Finally, the prosecution pleaded with the court that it could not provide the two other witnesses that it had promised; the minister of information and culture Alh. Lai Mohammed who signed the disputed sum as well as a BDC operator who the prosecution said is a person of interest.

The ICPC investigator in his statements said he already got a statement from the minister. He said the minister claimed he did not do due diligence on the documents before signing and further said he relied exclusively on the recommendations of the NBC Director General. It was an amusing thing to hear from the minister through the investigator. I'm sure most of the people in the court, just like me weighed the statement of the minister.

Although I am not gifted to name calling but I must say this is hypocrisy and perhaps incompetence on the part of the minister.

Although the judge is yet to give her judgement, but going by what I witnessed today and the available facts, its crystal clear that the ICPC is on a witch hunt. This is because they have failed to substantiate their allegations with facts. Also, they have technically succeeded in slowing down the digital switchover project which is long overdue in Nigeria plus they have been successful at embarrassing the trio of the Director - General of the NBC, Pinnacle communication's Lucky Omoluwa and Dipo Onifade who are also charged in this case.


https://globalete.com/2019/06/26/icpcs-trial-of-nbc-dg-and-two-others-might-have-not-been-a-real-trial-after-all/

Very weak story..

Kwara state first lady, Mrs Foluke Abdulrazaq yesterday marked her first day in her new capacity after meeting with staff.
She also reiterated her commitment to achieving set goals with her team.
Mrs Abdulrazaq is an experienced diplomat who has years of experience in international relations and nation building.

BY ABUBAKAR MAHMOUD AHMED

Early this week, a younger colleague alerted me to a story that was making the rounds on social media. A mushroom “civil society group” called COALITION AGAINST CORRUPTION AND BAD GOVERNANCE, CACOBAG, with address at Abeokuta Expressway, Abule Egba, in Lagos State, issued a screaming press release, alleging “license racketeering rocking the National Broadcasting Commission”.

How the mushroom group located in a ghetto of Abule Egba in Lagos State was able to discern “racketeering” allegation, that is “rocking the National Broadcasting Commission”, must be one of the wonders of contemporary life; but it seemed so obvious, that those behind this latest story about the NBC, were merely ratcheting up a figment of their own imagination, but one that was part of an orchestrated campaign, against Malam Modibbo Kawu, the Director General of the NBC. And it didn’t take too long in the press release, to see through the effort by the flotsam and jetsam of the Lagos “civil society” rabble. They gleefully announced their discovery, which must be like Einstein’s discovery of the grand Theory of Relativity. CACOBAG (like truly irresponsible windbags),announced that: “Information at our disposal indicate that the embattled (embattled? Who declared the war?) DIrector General of the NBC, Mallam Ishaq Modibbo Kawu recently (RECENTLY? The CACOBAG windbag ruffians couldn’t even get the exact dates?), allocated six slots of Radio license to his private company”.

The group went further to allege the “disturbing discovery of how the DG NBC surreptitiously allocated six slots of radio license to his private company, Word, Sound and Vision (WSV) Ltd to himself (SIC) in the recent allocation of Radio and Television broadcast license to private operators in the country”. Not done, CACOBAG, headed by a certain Toyin Raheem, went further to state that “Mallam Modibbo Kawu who is currently being prosecuted along with others in court by the ICPC over a N2.5 billion fraud case gave himself through his private company six prime radio license slots in Abuja, Lagos, Kaduna, Kano and two in Ilorin Kwara State”. Having made the “earth-shattering” discovery, CACOBAG said it was “totally unacceptable”; it was “an abuse of office and a display of cheer (CHEER?) greed and racketeering”. So, “we (THE WINDBAGS) at CACOBAG are calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to take immediate action”. And just in case Nigerians forget what I have stated in two previous articles, concerning Malam Modibbo Kawu, the windbags of “CACOBAG”, revealed again just what their sponsors have desperately longed for and which is tearing their hearts: “we wonder why Modibbo Kawu who is facing trial on charges of corruption and criminal conspiracy is still allowed as the DG of NBC”. CACOBAG and the Lagos-based political group that sponsors them, have been terribly sad, that the ICPC trial-by-media and subsequent arraignment in court, have not led to Malam Modibbo Kawu’s removal.

They have not been able to put their man, Dele Alake in the position of DG NBC, true to their wish, and as part of the agenda to control as many strategic institutions as possible, by the Lagos-based greedy political machinery. Not surprisingly, this week, the CACOBAG press statement has been reported in THE NATION and THE PUNCH newspapers and some of the online outlets, that have been at the heart of the campaign of vilification against Malam Modibbo Kawu, the DG of the NBC.

I wanted to know the truth of the allegations as well as the really true position in respect of the licensing of Radio and television stations by the NBC. So early this week, I made very painstaking investigations at the NBC HQ in Abuja, in respect of these allegations. I swear to Allah, that I made the investigation with an open mind, and with the sole purpose of knowing the truth of the matter. My informants at the NBC gave me an opportunity to ask questions, and they also quoted to me the relevant papers on the same subject. These professionals expressed surprise about the development, saying that my inquiry was the first time they were being made aware of an alleged “license racketeering” issue at the NBC.

I was informed that even the DG, Modibbo Kawu, only got to know about the press release by CACOBAG, when he got a call from a reporter from THE SUN newspaper. The reporter had informed him (Malam Modibbo Kawu), that his editor wanted to know Kawu’s view concerning the subject. It was later that day, that someone forwarded to him by WHATSAPP, the press statement by CACOBAG. At the NBC, I was informed, that the last set of 147 radio licenses were approved and issued by President Muhammadu Buhari on September 24th, 2018. That was eight months ago. How come that CACOBAG is just “discovering” the subject of their press release?

So the statement by CACOBAG alleging “licensing racketeering rocking the National Broadcasting Commission”, was therefore a figment of the imaginations of the “CACOBAG busybodies. It was clear, that the story must have come from the desperate desire of those behind the ICPC case, to add fuel to fire, with the new allegation, and who must have been working with insiders in the NBC; those in the Commission, who have regularly, secretly, released documents of the Commission to external clients.


I was further educated, that there are certain basic facts about licensing procedures that those behind the mischievous story were patently ignorant about. The DG of the NBC cannot and does not have the power to “allocate licenses” to himself or to anyone else. This is because all radio and television licenses are approved by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It is the president’s prerogative to approve (or withhold) licenses, to properly registered Nigerian companies, not the NBC Director General. What the NBC does, is to compile the list of applicants; these are then submitted to the Presidency. From that point, the NBC or its Director General, has no power to influence which company is then issued the license by the President. That has always been the case. I was then shown the applications for licenses by the company Word, Sound & Vision Multimedia Limited. The applications dated to September 26, 2008, eleven years ago. Similarly, I discovered that the PDP Presidents of the period, late Umaru Yar’adua and Goodluck Jonathan refused to give Word, Sound & Vision Multimedia Limited licenses, despite the fact that it met all the NBC’s laid down criteria for licensing. I was later informed at the Word, Sound & Vision Multimedia Limited Office, just how intense was the effort they made to speak to the top people in the administrations concerned, and a former PDP Governor, who became highly influential during the Yar’adua administration spoke forthrightly: “Modibbo we in the PDP will never give you a license; not after all that you’ve written against us in your weekly columns”. I was informed that that Malam Modibbo Kawu and his team at Word, Sound & Vision Multimedia Limited stopped bothering about trying to get the radio licenses. At least under the PDP administrations. Modibbo Kawu was appointed Director General of the NBC in May, 2016; and one of the first steps he took, was to be completely excluded from the directorship of the company, Word, Sound & Vision Multimedia Limited. At the company’s office, they told me that he has not even visited the offices of the company in the past three years. But the people running the company re-raised the issue of their application, and these were shortlisted and submitted, along with 162 other applications for commercial radio licenses, not to mention the television, campus and community stations. In the exercise of his powers, President Muhammadu Buhari approved 147 licenses, including those for Word, Sound & Vision Multimedia Limited. There was no way that the NBC DG could have influenced the list that the president approved.
>>
>> The people at the NBC here in Kaduna, told me further to my inquiry, that getting the approval was one thing, and that is often only the first step. They become effective and can be called licenses in real terms, only when the license fees have been paid and the licensee is issued frequencies to operate as radio stations. I got to know that in the 2015 round of licensing done by President Goodluck Jonathan, there was a company that was issued 14 licenses; another one got six; there was another one that got 4 and yet another, owned by Mr Godfrey Ohuabunwa, that was given seven licenses. It turned out that most of these licenses were not paid for, and so are not on air today. As I stated earlier, I met the lawyer working as General Manager of Word, Sound & Vision Multimedia Limited; at their offices/ studios in Jabi, and he confirmed that they were issued the licenses; but since September 2018, they have not been able to pay, and consequently, they have not been issued frequencies to operate. The lawyer expressed surprise that the CACOBAG people were mischievously linking the licenses to a so-called racketeering issue at the NBC. He said that as a bonafide Nigerian company, Word, Sound & Vision Multimedia Limited was entitled to seek the licenses, and he added further, that Malam Modibbo Kawu was removed from everything related to the company, from the moment that he was appointed the Director General of the National Broadcasting Commission. What I discovered further, was that licenses issued by the President are actually provisional and they translate to nothing, until they have been paid for, and the NBC’s Engineering Directorate issues the frequencies for transmission.
>>
>> So the question to ask is simple. Why have the windbags of CACOBAG gone to town with their allegation about “license racketeering” at the National Broadcasting Commission? The reason appears very clearly. The sponsors of the ICPC trial-by-media, against Malam Modibbo Kawu and Pinnacle Communications Limited, as well as the arraignment in court, have seen the way that their case is crumbling under cross examination. It is looking like the court route is not going to earn them the prize of removal of Malam Modibbo Kawu from his position as Director General of the National Broadcasting Commission. So they have chosen to go through a different route. There are so many “For Hire”, unemployed scum bags in the urban centers of Nigeria today, who call themselves “civil society activists”. The Lagos political machinery that is desperately seeking the ouster of Malam Modibbo Kawu as DG of the NBC, so that they can implant one of their own, Dele Alake, as part of the systematic takeover of all strategic Federal institutions, controls and funds many of these so-called “civil society” groups; the windbags of CACOBAG belong to the Lagos political rabble that believes it must destroy everyone that is in the way of their inordinate ambition to takeover every strategic institution in Nigeria. They work with other blindly ambitious individuals inside the NBC; these are the ones who release NBC documents, for the ridiculous purposes, such as has been done by the windbags of CACOBAG . But in this, their inordinate agenda, they will also fail. The Lagos political group does not own Nigeria. It cannot use blackmail and dirty politics to hound decent, hardworking Nigerians from genuine service to our country. They cannot be allowed to malign the characters of patriots genuinely serving Nigeria. Neither the windbags of CACOBAG nor their sponsors in the Lagos political machinery, will be allowed to destroy the character of Malam Modibbo Kawu, just because they want Dele Alake to be forcibly implanted as DG of the NBC. There was nothing like a “license racketeering” at the NBC, as alleged by the hired guns of CACOBAG. It is a futile attempt at creating a cheap scandal that has no basis, but which is the manner the Lagos political machinery has always operated. Nigerians have now seen through their evil plans against an innocent patriot, Malam Modibbo Kawu. Their plot will not succeed. The Holy Qur’an in Suratul Al-Anfal (8:30) said: “...they plot and plan, and Allah too plans, and Allah is the Best of planners”.

Abubakar Mahmoud Ahmed, retired Journalist; Public Affairs Consultant and Hadith Scholar, lives in Kurmi Mashi, Kaduna

EXLOVER:
Today makes it a year since i broke up with my ex.



Konji na bastard, but i didn't call her anytime for friendly match.




Nairalanders please celebrate with me, is not easy to be spending 3000 three times every week just to have sex for the past one year.

I'm just waiting for 9pm that's the time i normally spend the 3k

I feel ur pain

Fast rising and multi talented rapper Kabex is in the news for another viral freestyle.

This time he went head on with Africa's first lecturer Hip hop artist, theorist on why education should not be seen as the only ticket to achieving greatness in life.

In the now viral video, the lecturer who also doubles as a singer engaged his students and quickly attached their success in life to excelling in their final exams before Kabex cuts in and then gave him his opinion which knocked him down.

In his word, "the youth needs to be enlightened" on the importance of not limiting their world within the pages of a book.

Watch the video below:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x--HkfnBwuQ


http://www..ng/freestyles-dance/kabex-drops-mad-rap-lines-about-education-in-nigeria-you-will-love-him-after-watching-this

For once, I'm proud if Nigeria's judiciary system.

By Abubakar Mahmoud Ahmed

The Director General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Is’haq Modibbo Kawu’s calling into the dock, at the Federal High Court, on Wednesday this week, was a culmination of high wire politics, of the dirtiest type. For most people, the more they saw, the less they understood; and that was precisely the whole idea. Those who schemed the plot, have a central agenda. It was to REMOVE Modibbo Kawu as the DG of NBC, by all means, but most especially, the foulest, but with a complicit media, but most especially, Premium Times, as the preferred social media outlet. This story started, not in 2018, but actually in 2016. When President Buhari announced the DGs to head media parastatals and the NBC, he caused the first level of shock.

The announcement of Modibbo Kawu as NBC DG SHOCKED the political team from the Southwest, that had primed the position for Dele Alake, the former Commissioner for Information and Strategy in Lagos State. Lai Muhammed, as Minister of Information, was said to have shouted in his office, that: “this is unacceptable. Modibbo Kawu is not one of us”! He was very unhappy that he had no input whatsoever, in the appointment of all the DGs announced on that occasion: DG NBC; DG FRCN; DG NTA; DG VON; DG NOA and MD NAN. He then vowed in the VP’s Office, that he was going to make life difficult for all these appointees. This background is very vital to understand what is unfolding at the NBC.

The last DG of NBC, Emeka Mba, had actually been the writer of the petition that ICPC had used, as the basis for questioning the payment that NBC made to Pinnacle Communications Limited, using a set of members of staff of the NBC, to get official papers of the Commission, for his petition to the ICPC. Emeka Mba had been a very good benefactor of Lai Muhammed, in the few months that he was still DG NBC, after the 2015 elections and the inauguration of the Buhari administration. Emeka Mba had used NBC’s funds to finance the Jonathan campaign and he looked the other way, when NTA and AIT, were broadcasting hate materials, against then candidate, Muhammadu Buhari. But soon as the APC won it’s victory, like a chameleon, he began to change his posture. It should not be forgotten that Emeka Mba had received presidential approval to sell frequency, which fetched NBC N35billion from MTN.

Emeka went on a spending spree, encouraging his friends and associates, to set up shell companies, through which the money could be taken out. The NBC had initially emphatically stated, that Set Top Boxes would not be subsidized. But Emeka and friends, needed to corner the funds, so he got Sir Godfrey Ohuabunwa to lead an elaborate process of a subsidy regime, not known to the White Paper on the Transition from Analogue to Digital Broadcasting. Billions of naira went into that. Ohuabunwa was later to confess that Emeka Mba owned 100,000 of the 200,000 boxes that he fronted, that took billions of naira from the N35billion.

In the meantime, Emeka Mba had a major battle on his hands, and that was the stubborn resistance of Pinnacle Communications Limited. They had won an open, transparent and competitive bid, in 2014, and were subsequently licensed as the Second National Signal Distributors for the Nigerian DSO, after paying the bid sum of N685 million. Emeka Mba extracted all the money-making elements from the license he gave Pinnacle Communications. He then licensed CCNL, partly owned by himself, Toyin Subair and Godfrey Ohuabunwa. Pinnacle Communications Limited went to court, and were in court, till the Jonathan administration was defeated.

In the heydays of Diezani Allison-Maduekwe’s powers, Emeka Mba would brag that he had Diezani’s backing; and vowing to turn Pinnacle Communications Limited’s license to a worthless piece of paper! It became a condition to get any look in at the NBC, by strictly following Emeka Mba’s order that they must NEVER have anything to do with Pinnacle Communications Limited.

The broadcast stakeholders were encouraged/threatened to treat Pinnacle like a leper, and at the forefront of the propaganda machinery that Emeka oiled with NBC’s funds, was Godfrey Ohuabunwa. He was regularly on television and the pages of newspapers, extolling Emeka MBA’s “ingenuity “. It was clear, that Godfrey Ohuabunwa, a man of very limited financial means, had suddenly hit a jackpot, through Mba. He had to protect his new found wealth. At the IBC conference in Amsterdam, he saw Dipo Onifade of Pinnacle Communications Limited, and told him that the gravy train had left Pinnacle behind.

Having spent so much money, and receiving the assurances of Lai Muhammed and Toyin Subair’s support that he would get Bola Tinubu to ensure he was retained, the propaganda was spiked, that the DSO was going to collapse, if Emeka Mba was not retained as DG NBC. Even Lai Muhammed, assured Mba that his tenure was going to be protected.

A notorious PDP financier had spread so much money within a segment of the new APC administration, that the Minister of Information, Lai Muhammed and his political group, was prepared to forget all he did against President Muhammadu Buhari. The Pinnacle Communications Limited Chairman, Lucky Omoluwa, had supported the Buhari campaign, and had thought the change of administration, would offer an opportunity to rectify the injustice they faced under Emeka Mba. Lai Muhammed pretended he was going to offer a platform of genuine settlement, while he was always on Emeka Mba’s side.

But Emeka was to prove his own worst enemy. The directive that all funds be put into the Federal Government’s TSA, became his Achilles Heel. He hid Ten Billion Naira, which was eventually revealed by a whistleblower. He became an orphan, because Lai Muhammed and the Lagos political machinery, quickly abandoned him to his own devices. He was removed from the NBC. And on his way out, he handed over to Armstrong Idachaba. He was so loyal to Emeka Mba, that he was reportedly given some of the shares of CCNL, and a few thousands of the Set Top Boxes that Emeka Mba turned into freebies.

This was the explosive situation that Modibbo Kawu inherited as Director General of the NBC. It was almost akin to a poisoned chalice. But he set out to systematically make the system serve Nigeria’s interest. Pinnacle Communications Limited that had been in court, was encouraged to accept an out-of-court settlement. They were appointed Signal Distributor for the Abuja Switchover. They delivered within 90 days, including airfreighting 9tons of equipment into Abuja.

They provided the very best facilities that were commissioned by the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, on December 22nd, 2016. Their Kaduna center was commissioned a year later, by Governor Nasir El-Rufai. These events were broadcast live on television, and attended by all the stakeholders in broadcasting. It was for their services, that five months after commissioning of the Abuja center, NBC paid them the N2.5billion, that had become the source of controversy and the basis of the ICPC indictment.

It should be noted that Lai Muhammed approved the payment; just as he approved all the payments made to Set Top Boxes manufacturers; CCNL; Call Center operators, and others. The White Paper is the instrument used to justify these payments. Yet, the ICPC accepted Emeka Mba’s “petition”. Emeka Mba had never reconciled himself to the fact that he is no longer the NBC DG, given the money he spent to retain the position. And he still has the billions of Naira that came from the Set Top Boxes payments that NBC made. Similarly, his team within and outside the NBC, all of a sudden, were no longer calling the shots, with Modibbo Kawu’s emergence as DG.

The NBC itself is an institution that is badly skewed over the years. The majority of the staff recruited by Mba were from the Southeast and for the majority of those, Modibbo Kawu is an alien, as far as they are concerned. They regularly release NBC’s secret papers to external forces, while Emeka Mba brags that his boys inside keep him abreast of any and every development. In the last elections, most NBC staff were reported to have voted for PDP, because they wanted President Muhammadu Buhari to lose, since that would mean that Modibbo Kawu would then be removed as DG. One of the most entrenched cabals inside the NBC, is the licensing cabal. It was the ruling mantra that Southerners can, and must be given licenses in the North, but Northerners are ALWAYS denied licenses in the South, especially the lucrative Lagos market.

Well, Modibbo Kawu ensured that for the first time, in the 25-year history of the NBC, Northerners got several licenses in Lagos, and there was a far more just and even spread of licenses, with the licensing round that President Muhammadu Buhari approved in September 2018: the single largest round of licensing in Nigerian history. But there were people who were also angry outside of the NBC about the licensing.

But the Emeka Mba petition, suddenly took a life of its own. It became a very useful instrument to serve an original agenda: to get Modibbo Kawu out of the NBC. There’s a strong Lagos and Redeemed Church connection to this agenda. The first person that took on the battle was the Head of Operations, at the ICPC, a certain Hakeem Lawal from Lagos State. He was working directly on this project with Ade Ipaye, the VP’s Chief of Staff. They decided this was an opportunity too good to lose. To make things even better, the new ICPC Board is headed by another VP sidekick, Bolaji Owosonoye, who also belongs to the Redeemed Church.

The plan is to bring into the NBC, after they might have removed Modibbo Kawu, their original candidate, Dele Alake, who also belongs to the Redeemed Church. VP Yemi Osinbajo has stealthily implanted his Redeemed people into leadership in the Consumer Protection Council as well as NAFDAC, but for him and his team, NBC, is the ace of cards. Modibbo Kawu is giving Northerners licenses in areas that they were long banned from. They cannot allow that to continue. Media power, including but especially, broadcast media power, MUST remain a Southern monopoly. With Modibbo Kawu in position, there’s danger. So Willy-Nilly, he must be removed, even if the basis is spurious. There’s Premium Times, to help spin the story, plus a complicit traditional media too.

The Ministry of Justice set up two committees to examine all the details of the NBC payment to Pinnacle Communications Limited. The committees reached a verdict that there was no wrongdoing in the process and the payment. They then issued an advice to ICPC to step down the plan for indictment, and carry out further investigations, including visits to the Pinnacle DSO project sites, since no ICPC investigators have ever done so. Bolaji Owosonoye refused to acknowledge the letter, nor listened to other members of the ICPC Board. He was on a mission to ensure that Modibbo Kawu is arraigned. And that actually is their simple plan: arraign Modibbo Kawu in court, then begin a campaign that he should step aside. But the first step was to leak the information to Premium Times, that the AGF is pressuring the ICPC to drop the “corrupt payment” case against Modibbo Kawu.

The idea is to ensure that the Ministry of Justice won’t then be able to intervene, in their well-orchestrated plan to remove Modibbo Kawu, and replace him with Dele Alake, a fellow member of the Redeemed Church, like the promoter of this campaign, the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, through his Chief of Staff, Ade Ipaye and ICPC Chairman, Bolaji Owosonoye.

Lai Muhammed has his own personal grouses against Modibbo Kawu. The most contemporary, had to do with the politics of Kwara. He was unhappy that Modibbo Kawu participated in the gubernatorial race last year. Lai vowed that he was going to ensure that Modibbo Kawu didn’t get the ticket, and at the same time, he would make sure he never returned as DG NBC. Well, Modibbo didn’t get the ticket, but Lai Muhammed has not abandoned the plan to remove him, as NBC DG. Lai Muhammed, in fact, was said to have written the letter requesting Modibbo Kawu to step aside, until it was pointed out that only the SGF, could issue such a letter.

To sum up, what appears to be an issue of so-called “corrupt payment”, is actually high wire political intrigue. Those who have a genuine sense of justice, and especially Northerners, must “shine your eyes”; you are about to lose one of the best opportunities to have an equitable period in the history of the NBC. That is what Modibbo Kawu has worked for, in almost three years. If you don’t rally round him, and allow them to remove him, you would discover that the imbalance in broadcast media power, would be deepened.

And not only that, you would have used your indifference, to assist VP Yemi Osinbajo and his team, to further the entrenchment of the Redeemed Church in the Nigerian political space. The choice you make today, will have consequences tomorrow. Northerners shine your eyes.

Source: Daily Nigerian

Naijaguy123:
By the time you finished reading this, Bill gate already made 1 million dollars.

This man has 100 billion dollars sitting in his bank account .

Wrong? His net wort ain't his bank's account balance.

Drop ur contact.

BY : BALOGUN ABIDEEN

It is undoubtedly true that Mallam Ishaq Modibbo Kawu is one of the finest , gentle , courageous and intelligent fellow Kwara state has ever produced.
He is a media mogul with age long broadcasting experience.

He has worked in different forums of almost all endeavours, widely traveled, refined and also has a good command of the English language.

He also speaks French language and Fulfulde perfectly. He is an extra ordinary being with lots of charismatic background.

Mallam Ishaq Modibbo Kawu is presently the DG , National Broadcasting Commission NBC, a commission that regulates broadcasting organizations in Nigeria.

He was appointed DG in 2016 and ever since he resumed office , the commission has continued to gain accolades from the numerous projects and achievements of the commission.

For those who know IMK as he was fondly called, he is a disciplinarian to the core, an incorruptible man but fearless in his dealings. This reserved characters have gotten him into smears of lots of fights with friends, cronies and even many of his bosses.

Presently, he along side three others are facing corruption charges slammed on them by ICPC. This has gotten many of his admirers and supporters disturbed. But for many that has been following the twist of events in the commission closely, this is one out of the many ordeals which Modibbo has been going through and will likely continue to endure until he leaves the office.

For records purposes, National Broadcasting Commission is a parastatals under the Ministry of information and culture in Nigeria headed by Alhaji Lai Mohammed. Coincidentally , both Alh. Lai Mohammed and Mallam Ishaq Modibbo Kawu are from Kwara state.

But , since the resumption of Mallam Ishaq Modibbo Kawu as the DG NBC, he has been in fierce battle with the Minister.

Many have wonder what the problems could be , but it is not far fetched, Alh Lai Mohammed is so bittered that Modibbo Kawu who does not appear on the list of preferred candidate for the job made it to the office.

Alh Lai Mohammed and his boss Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu had preferred a candidate from their camp, whom they had hoped can be maneuvered to do their biddings in the broadcasting industry in Nigeria.

Asiwaju Bola Tinubu haven understood the gigantic effects of broadcasting in democratic Nigeria , had preferred having the media waves controlled from his corridors of power.

But it is bygone, Mallam Ishaq Modibbo Kawu belongs to a northern political power bloc, they are the power brokers in the northern hemisphere in Nigeria. This helped him in clinching the job but this also set him up against the political titans of the South West.

Since then, the battle lines was drawn and Alh Lai Mohammed started working against for the the DG NBC. The intrigues never became glaring to outsiders and even the board members; this is because the constitution of the board members too was an intrigues of a power play between the two powerful political blocs .
This is it, the Tinubu camp being powerful power brokers in the West having many representatives , Alh Lai Mohammed is one . While the northern political power brokers got their representatives; Modibbo Kawu to represent them as DG NBC.

Though both of them belongs to APC in Kwara state, they are both powerful political holders in the state but with their focus on getting down the Saraki political dynasty, they both pretended to be allies even when Alh Lai Mohammed continued to stack the DG with lots of queries on each and every slight provocation.

Lai Mohammed, in many occasions continued to boycott lots of assignments, occasions and meetings that came from NBC .

However, the many intrigues between the two continued for years, and they managed each other until very recently when Mallam Ishaq Modibbo Kawu aired his interest to become the governor in Kwara state.

Alh Lai Mohammed only sees Modibbo Kawu's interest of becoming the state governor as a slap in his face and deployed all his political clouts in making his ambition fruitless.

Alh Lai Mohammed out of his desperation told many people that Modibbo Kawu never hinted him of his gubernatorial ambition. He criticised Modibbo Kawu that he got to know of his governorship aspirations from campaign posters and phone calls.

For many who know Lai Mohammed very well, he is an acquisitive, avaricious, bribable, corrupt, covetous, grabby, miserly, money-grubbing, selfish, sordid, stingy, unethical, unprincipled, venal, domineering and overzealous politician Nigeria has ever produced. He went all out just to stop Modibbo Kawu's gubernatorial ambition, he got it and Modibbo Kawu loss out.

Even with that ,Alh Lai Mohammed never backed down on his outburst on Modibbo, haven considered Modibbo Kawu a brighter chance of becoming a minister in the next dispensation, he is desperately out now to show him a way out of NBC by all means.


The current ICPC case indicting Modibbo Kawu and two others is another strategy used by the same camp to weaken Modibbo Kawu.

They want him smeared and smashed of corruption charges and embezzlement allegations even when the same Lai Mohammed was the one that signed the #2.5 billion for the digital switchover projects.

In sincerity, NBC as a Commission has it's own conducts and the rules of guidance; the DG cannot sign a project above #3 million but the minister being the head of the ministry can sign above that.

Alh Lai Mohammed signed the money for the DSO projects after he was convinced of the dealings ; but while ICPC reached out to him for investigation , he denied any knowledge of the contracts.

The DG NBC Mallam Moddibo Kawu has exclusively responded to many of the ICPC media frenzy about this case.
He also said that the ICPC reports are untrue as he argued that he has nothing to hide and so is ready to respond to any investigation if need be.

Mallam Kawu confidently affirmed that the whole deal is open and he has nothing to fear and reaffirmed his age long support for the fight against corruption anytime anywhere.

Pinnacle won an open competitive bid in 2014 to be appointed the Second National Signal Distributors for the DSO.

In fact, For that license they paid NBC N680million. That’s the single biggest contribution to the DSO so far! There were discrepancies in their license and they went to court against the NBC, for two years, until Modibbo Kawu was appointed DG in 2016.

He got them out of court and they accepted to return to the DSO process. The Commission appointed them as the Signal distributors for the Abuja, Kaduna, Gombe and Asaba switchover. They delivered the Abuja Switch over in December 2016 and Kaduna in 2017. They are concluding work in Gombe and Delta now as we speak.

For their work, they were paid N2.5b in May 2017. Meanwhile, ITS the first signal distributor, had been paid N1.7b in 2015. At the time, the Naira exchanged at N160 to the Dollar. When Pinnacle was paid N2.5b in 2017, the exchange rate was N380 to the Dollar.

These payments had been done on the basis of the FG White Paper on the DSO. That’s the instrument of the process. As well as the FG directive that all payments for DSO be approved by the Hon Minister of Information and that’s exactly what we did with the process and payments.

Although ICPC said they received a petition from a faceless person as the basis of their action. And that was the basis of their original press release that had several factual errors and is also the basis of their alleged court action as carried by the media.

And one will be surprised when the news kept maintaining that the money in contention is for migration of telephone line from analogue to digital platform. This is laughable as National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) have nothing to do with telephone lines.

The statement is also the substance of their alleged court arraignment that we just keep reading on online outfits like any other Nigerian.

For those that followed Modibbo Kawu's life history diligently, he has maintained certain basic standards all his life. And those standards and values are guiding principles in his public and private life.

They didn’t change in just two and a half years of work as DG NBC. He had 42years of professional media, ideological, family, historical and political life. The standards are consistent for him.

He have also held other political and professional responsibilities over the past 42 years ; he is dedicated to the good of our country and never forget the values of his background and forefathers.

But for Alh Lai Mohammed, his stories in Kwara state only is a story of a disgusting episodes. Many Kwarans are opposed to representing the state as a minister.
Many Kwarans and his Oro kingdom brothers never count Alh Lai Mohammed serious in anything. He is a Lagos politicians as many will call him and Lagos is where is loyalties belongs.

It is a glaring fact that Alh Lai Mohammed was never a political gladiator to reckon with reasons why nobody celebrate him as APC leader in Kwara. He is not among movers and shakers in politics in Kwara.

His selfishness is legendary and uncoated; his son is an elected honourable member in Lagos state while Alh Lai Mohammed can not boast of two to three people he facilitated employment for as a minister Kwara.

Non of is political assistants is from Kwara state as he as for long have that firm characters never to align himself with Kwara state reason he is bent in getting the charismatic Modibbo out of office .

The many suspicious political manoeuvering during the last APC primaries in Kwara is another testimony of the intrigues in Alh Lai Mohammed bad political dealings. He was alleged of manipulating the results in favour of those he collected kickbacks from.

Many of the dramas unfolded after the primaries when there was never any primaries that took place in APC in Kwara ; yet Alh Lai Mohammed was quick to return to Abuja to fine tune the political coup in favour of those he collected money bags from. What an aberration !

This same Lai Mohammed was accused by a gubernatorial candidate in Kwara state in public forum that he dumped him after collecting bribes from him .

Today , the many manipulation of Alh Lai Mohammed in Kwara state as been uncovered and many elected members in Kwara state are very careful dealing with him, reason many of them as continue to ignore him in many meetings including the governor elect.

Though , it is very clear to all and sundry that the power shift in Kwara is revolutionary in nature and the collapse of Saraki hegemony can never translates to a shift to Lagos political dominance.

In all , Alh Lai Mohammed should know by now that all his shoddy dealings has been uncovered and he will get all resistant from all Kwarans. He will never succeed in reversing Kwara back to the days of backwardness and political godfatherism. Kwara of today belongs to all Kwarans.


https://globalete.com/2019/04/17/%ef%bb%bfbut-what-was-his-crime-lai-mohammed-vs-modibbo-kawu/

All over the world, tourism has been marked as one of the identified ways of generating IGR to sustain and stabilize the economy. In making Kwara State a tourist destination, the Governor-elect AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq paid a courtesy visit to the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) where he met with the DG, Mr Folorunsho Coke to discuss the state of Kwara State’s tourism and what the immediate needs were to revive the sector.

Kwara is home to beautiful edifices and masterpieces of global interest which over the years have gotten little or no attention from the current or past governments. It is interesting to note that the tourist sites have been abandoned and left in a deplorable state that cannot be showcased or boasted about.

The Governor-elect visit sprung up discussion with the DG on how tourism can be revived to create jobs and add significantly to the Internally Generated Revenue. Part of the discourse was the Esie Museum, Owu Waterfalls, Pategi Regatta, Ilorin Emirate Durbar, Ghani Festival, Ijakadi festival amongst others.

AbdulRazaq is also looking at ways of making all historic festivals in Kwara of global worthy standard that will place Kwara State on not only the national tourism map but global tourism map.


https://www.fidelinfo.com/2019/04/16/kwara-state-has-potential-to-be-on-the-global-map-of-world-tourism-says-abdulrazaq/

Even the judiciary which should serve as the place where common people can justice has failed.

iAmViper:
Slot koor dayboss ni

My Ilorin people