The Minister of State for Education, Suwaiba Ahmad, has urged the governments of Bauchi, Katsina, Kebbi, and Kano states to reconsider their decision to shut down state-owned schools for the duration of Ramadan.
Ahmad argued that no Muslim-majority country enforces such a practice, suggesting that it is neither a religious requirement nor a beneficial policy. Speaking on Channels Television’s Political Paradigm, she emphasized that keeping schools open during Ramadan is a standard practice, even in countries where Islam is the dominant religion.
"In each state, the education system is under state jurisdiction, and they have the right to make decisions," she said. "However, we can only engage them and present our position on the matter."
Americans, just ask yourself: if a country that is fighting a war invasion, has lost 20% of its territory, '000s of civilians, its energy infrastructure, etc, can down Twitter/X for >24hrs, how safe do you feel having that platform's leader in charge of your entire Govt infrastructure?
Lily Jamali North America technology correspondent Reporting fromSan Francisco
Liv McMahon Technology reporter
Elon Musk's social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, experienced massive outages throughout Monday morning that impacted thousands of users in the US and UK.
The outage came as platform monitor Downdetector said it had seen tens of thousands of reports from US users of technical issues affecting the platform.
There were more than 8,000 outage reports from UK users shortly before 14:00 GMT, following a brief but notable surge of reports on Monday morning.
Connection issues lasted for some users into the afternoon.
Many users trying to access the platform and refresh feeds on its app and desktop site during Monday's outages were met with a loading icon.
Musk claims the outages stemmed from a "massive cyber-attack" that originated "in the Ukraine area".
But the technology billionaire, who has been a frequent critic of Ukraine and its President Volodymyr Zelensky, offered no evidence to support the claim and did not say whether or not he thought state actors were involved.
Earlier, he posted on X that "either a large, coordinated group and/or a country is involved".
The BBC has approached the Ukrainian embassy in Washington DC for comment.
"We're not sure exactly what happened but there was a massive cyber-attack to try and bring down the X system with [Internet Protocol] addresses originating in the Ukraine area," Musk said in an interview with the Fox Business channel.
Alp Toker, director of Netblocks, which monitors the connectivity of web services, said its own metrics suggested the outages could well be linked to a cyber-attack.
"What we've been seeing is consistent with what we've seen in past denial of service attacks, rather than a configuration or coding error in the platform," he told the BBC.
He said the organisation has seen several major outages spanning more than six hours on Monday, "each having global impact".
"This is amongst the longest X/Twitter outages we've tracked in terms of duration, and the pattern is consistent with a denial of service attack targeting X's infrastructure at scale," he added.
A distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack is an attempt to take a website offline by overwhelming it with internet traffic.
Musk has previously claimed that the platform has been targeted by DDoS attacks, but these have not been confirmed.
Also on Monday, Musk called US Senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat from Arizona, a "traitor" for going to Ukraine over the weekend. Kelly had said the visit "proved to me we can't give up on the Ukrainian people".
Kelly replied on X: "Elon, if you don't understand that defending freedom is a basic tenet of what makes America great and keeps us safe, maybe you should leave it to those of us who do."
LASG ACTIVATES EMERGENCY RESPONSE AFTER OUTBREAK OF DIPHTHERIA IN SCHOOL
• Mass Vaccination begins
• Commissioner: no need to panic
The Lagos State Government has activated its Emergency Response Committee, following the outbreak of diphtheria in the boarding house of King’s College, Victoria Island Annexe.
Commissioner for Health Prof. Akin Abayomi has advised the public not to panic, adding that an Emergency Operations Committee (EOC) has been activated to contain the outbreak and prevent undue fatalities.
According to Abayomi, the index case, a 12-year-old boy, presented with sore throat and fever to the health facilities of the school on February 22, and was promptly referred and admitted to the pediatric emergency ward of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) where he was promptly admitted and administered appropriate antibiotics and a full dose of diphtheria ant toxoid serum.
Said the Commissioner: "Despite the timely intervention, the boy succumbed to progressive and irreversible inflammation of the heart (myocarditis) on the 6th of March. Myocarditis is a severe and recognized complication of the bacterial infection caused by the toxin. The Commissioner noted that at the time of his death, an Emergency Operation Committee had already been activated and 34 close contacts of the deceased student were already being closely observed for symptoms.
"Of these, 14 have developed symptoms consistent with diphtheria. In response, the affected students were transported to the Children’s Emergency Unit at Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), where they were screened by health professionals."
Of the 14 that were examined,12 were determined to have developed early signs of Diphtheria and were admitted to receive antibiotics and the Diphtheria Ant toxoid Serum. No further cases have developed so far, and all 14 symptomatic students are recovering.
Abayomi noted that a preliminary inspection of King’s College Annexe by health officials uncovered areas where infection prevention and control (IPC) measures need to be improved and that process will commence immediately.
The state government, in collaboration with Federal health agencies, are set to launch a targeted vaccination campaign for all consented students of the school (both the annexe on Victoria Island and the Main School in Igbosere), inclusive of all healthcare providers, to strengthen immunity against the deadly infection. This may likely expand statewide.
To ensure widespread public awareness, information leaflets detailing diphtheria symptoms, prevention, and early treatment options are being disseminated across all healthcare facilities in Lagos. The state government is also preparing a public health announcement to sensitize Lagosians about the outbreak, warning them to watch out for symptoms, such as sore throat, fever, difficulty in breathing, and swollen neck glands.
Health authorities, including World Health Organization (WHO), Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), and National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) have been notified of the outbreak and are collaborating with Lagos State to coordinate an effective response.
Lagos has close to 500,000 doses of diphtheria vaccines in stock, which will be strategically deployed as part of the emergency response to high risk locations.
The State Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) will convene daily to assess the evolving situation and guide policy decisions. Subsequent meetings will involve the Ministry of Basic and Tertiary Education as well as other stakeholders to enhance inter-sectoral coordination in tackling the outbreak.
Abayomi advised Lagos residents to prioritize good hygiene, avoid crowded environments, and seek medical attention immediately if experiencing diphtheria-like symptoms. "Early detection and treatment can save lives. Let’s all work together to curb this outbreak and protect our communities," he said.
The Honourable Commissioner of Health would like to assure Lagosians that “the outbreak is under control and there is no need to panic because measures will continue in earnest of to protect our citizens from infectious disease outbreaks”.
Diphtheria is an infection of the throat caused by a bacteria that results in inflammation of the throat, fever, swollen neck glands and difficulty in breathing. In addition, a toxin produced by the bacteria can cause failure of multiple organs, such as heart, lungs and nerves. Diphtheria is preventable by adhering to the full vaccination schedule, good hygiene, avoidance of crowded under ventilated spaces and prompt treatment of infection with antibiotics and ant toxoid serum to neutralize the effect of the toxin on organs.
ObaaOfYorubaLan: I want to see them extend their actions to mosque as well not just churches only
Myrepublic: Even though I understand that some churches over do things,but Muslim people disturb the most with their noise using that their Horn speaker or what they call it. How many of those mosque has been sealed. And it's one alhaja hard life that reported them . If Christians should start reporting mosque too,I bet all mosque will be sealed. They disturb with noise in the morning very early,noon,night .. even 4pm in the evening.
alpharoyalty: You are very correct. We live in a very biased Lagos state. muslims can afford to wake you up as early as , 5am and 6am with the suicide shout from their loud speakers and nobody is doing anything.
Click on the links and you'll see pictures and videos of mosques that have been sealed for noise pollution.
naptu2: Lasepa has taken action against lots of churches, mosques, music stores, hotels, bars and factories that have been engaged in noise pollution and there are many nairaland threads about those incidents, so I'll encourage you to complain, because the system works.
Thank you LASEPA 🙏 Weeks ago, my neighbor here in Iba, Ojo received notice due to sewage spillage on the street. Now, the situation is under control, we are now breathing fresh air. And the street is dry. No more sewage on the street. 🙏 Thanks for response God bless LASEPA 🙏
naptu2: I think this is a really good opportunity to look at things from the other side.
Lagos State environmental agencies have been in the news recently because they've been carrying out regulatory enforcement. We've heard stories about places that have been shut or demolished, we've heard the side of the owners of those places and we've heard the side of the government. There is one side that has been missing in all of these.
You see, in most cases the government doesn't just go to shut down or demolish these premises. In most cases government action is as a result of complaints from members of the public. Complaints like the one below.
And just as the owners of the shut or demolished properties are not happy with government, many of the complainants are also not happy with government.
As has often been said, government doesn't just go to demolish or seal places. They usually do this only after a lot of warnings have been ignored. Those warnings are also a problem for the complainant. I'll give you some examples.
The government recently demolished some structures that were built on the Ikota canal and it is still going to demolish more structures. It was proven that the government has issued several warnings to the owners of those properties since 2019.
I told you that I saw tweets by someone that was complaining about those structures. He said that they had also warned the owners of the structures many times. He said that they experience flooding in their area because the owners had blocked the canal. He tweeted before and after pictures of the area.
Now imagine that you are that complainant above and you have complained to the government since 2019 and nothing has been done because the government was warning the owners and giving them time to voluntarily remove their structures. Imagine that you have been suffering the floods every year, but government has done nothing about your complaints, how would you feel?
I remember when the former head of LASEPA gave details of their processes. He said that they don't just shut places down for noise pollution. They first advise them, that is, tell them what the problem is and how they can solve it, then they come back later to monitor the situation (or the complainant can complain again), then they issue a first warning if the situation is still the same, then a second warning and then they seal off the property.
Some Nigerians have no patience for that.
I was advising someone to contact LASEPA a few years ago, when another person butted in and said that LASEPA doesn't do anything. He said that they are only there to collect money for regulations.
Yet I know many people that have had their problems solved satisfactorily by LASEPA. I guessed that the guy had a complaint and didn't have the patience to follow through and I was right.
A very good example is that girl that reported a church. She made a tweet thread about it and I converted it into a Nairaland thread. She didn't just report the church once. She reported them and they started praying against her, then she reported them several more times and they eventually had to change the location of their vigil because LASEPA was on their case.
This is a screenshot of someone reporting an abbatoir. He was responding to a tweet by a government official about the fact that the market management at Alaba Rago organised a cleanup campaign after seeing what has happened to other markets in Lagos.
naptu2: What you are asking for already exists both at the federal and state levels.
Unfortunately I'm in transit at the moment, so I'm going to compose this post entirely from my memory, but I'll provide more information when I get to my destination.
The law that created the Nigerian Environmental Safety Regulatory Agency (NESREA) empowers it to set noise limits. Individuals and organisations must comply with this limit or they will be made to pay fines for every day that they contravene the regulation and they can also be jailed. Unfortunately I can't remember what the limit is.
In Lagos State, LASEPA has set a limit of 55 decibels during the day and 45 decibels at night. I watched an episode of Sunrise Daily (between 2005 and 2009) in which the then commissioner of environment, Dr Muiz Banire talked about noise pollution.
He said that he tested the generator in his home and discovered that he was contravening the law and he had to get it soundproofed. He said that citizens could complain to LASEPA and LASEPA would initially issue a warning to the defaulter to reduce the noise being emitted. Then they will conduct inspections to see if their warning is being complied with and lastly, they will seal the property if the problem continues.
I've posted a long list of example of action taken against churches, mosques, bars, factories, hotels etc. and ways in which you can contact LASEPA. I'll search for them when I get to my destination or you can use the Nairaland search bar and type " Naptu2 Lasepa "
naptu2: The Lagos State Government has held several meetings with religious leaders, club owners, etc. over the past 22 years to educate them about Lagos State laws on noise pollution and to tell them what they can do in order to comply with the law.
● Churches have been advised to remove external speakers and the big churches with powerful internal speakers have been advised to soundproof their halls.
● Nightclubs, bars and other such entertainment venues have been advised to soundproof their halls.
● Mosques have been advised not to use external speakers during prayers.
etc.
In recent times the traffic law enforcement agencies have also had issues with nightclubs that hold special events at Christmastime, but do not have enough parking space for their patrons and they end up parking on the road and obstructing traffic. The government has advised them to provide adequate parking space for their patrons.
naptu2: Lasepa has taken action against lots of churches, mosques, music stores, hotels, bars and factories that have been engaged in noise pollution and there are many nairaland threads about those incidents, so I'll encourage you to complain, because the system works.
This is long overdue please. We’ve been reporting this case for over a year now and nothing has been done. We went out to meet them that their noise is disturbing us seriously and they had to increase it. Imagine going to bed after a long day with serious headache after a long day at work at past 10pm and been woken up with noise from the church by this odd hour. I have to wake up by 4am!!!!!!!! @followlasg @LasepaOfficial @jidesanwoolu
This is long overdue please. We’ve been reporting this case for over a year now and nothing has been done. We went out to meet them that their noise is disturbing us seriously and they had to increase it. Imagine going to bed after a long day with pic.twitter.com/sWgYw3ESsQ
Following a public complaint made by @SoftLifeAlhaja , the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency led by the General Manager, Dr Tunde Ajayi @thetundeajayi has sealed the church causing environmental pollution in the area.
Re: Clarification on the Naira Crude Contract Between NNPC Limited and Dangote Refinery
NNPC Limited has noted recent reports circulating on social media regarding the alleged unilateral termination of the crude oil sales agreement in Naira between NNPC Ltd. and Dangote Refinery.
To clarify, the contract for the sale of crude oil in Naira was structured as a six-month agreement, subject to availability, and expires at the end of March 2025. Discussions are currently ongoing towards emplacing a new contract.
Under this arrangement, NNPC Ltd. has made over 48 million barrels of crude oil available to Dangote Refinery since October 2024. In aggregate, NNPC Ltd. has made over 84 million barrels of crude oil available to the Refinery since its commencement of operations in 2023.
NNPC Limited remains committed to supplying crude oil for local refining based on mutually agreed terms and conditions.
Politics › Re: I Can’t Be President And You Will Close Down School For Ramadan - Sowore by naptu2: 5:00pm On Mar 11, 2025
