₦airaland Forum

duduade:
common gettat


all the other ones you have been collecting nko

tamdun:
Is she on something?

A former Governor of Anambra State, Chris Ngige said on Saturday he was offered bribes to accept the victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Anambra, Andy Uba, at the party’s primary election.

Ngige, who addressed the party members during a New Year get-together held at his community in Alor, Anambra State, said he rejected the money because it was against his conscience.

The Minister of Labour and Employment insisted that no primary election took place to nominate Uba as the APC flag bearer in the state but some people offered him money to accept that the election went well.

Uba finished behind the eventual winner, Prof. Charles Soludo of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Valentine Ozigbor, in the election held on November 6 last year in Anambra.

Ngige said: “13 persons went for the election (primary) and I told them I do not have anointed aspirant. I told them it is God who makes a governor, it is also God who makes a President. I told them to go to the field and convince everyone to vote for them.

“I told them what was going to happen was direct primaries, either by secret ballot or option A4. These aspirants listened to me and used their hard-earned money to run for the election.

“None of them is a thief or stole money, so they used their hard-earned money and we did a primary election and we said everyone would go to their ward, that voting will take place from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

“I even came from Abuja to participate in the process. Somebody of my status could not vote. I didn’t see any electoral materials here in Alor ward one. I am from this place, with no electoral officials or materials except INEC officials. These were the only people who came, our party officials never came.

“By 5:00 p.m., I called Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State and told him nothing happened. I told him to postpone the election from Saturday to Monday he said okay, but they ended up announcing the result.

“At the end, they said I should come and take money and say the election held. I, Chris Ngige should come and take money and say an election that I never participated in took place.

“I told them I have all the money I needed, and that I have contested for all the positions I needed to contest for. It is only one position that I have not contested for. We are the founding fathers of this party, these were the same people who stood against us in the early days of APC and called us Boko Haram party.

“Today, they are saying Ngige does not want people to come in and that I am now putting people who are my brothers in position. Do not listen to them, they are lying.”

jetwonder:
#this lie lie na waaooo!!!!

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has revealed that the digital economy sector was highly instrumental in lifting the Nigerian economy out of recession in 2021.

Mohammed, who disclosed this at the weekend, said Nigeria slipped into recession in November 2020 after its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracted for the second consecutive quarter.

He, however, said that the fourth quarter of 2020 Report on the nation’s GDP revealed that the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector recorded the highest growth rate of all the sectors of the Nigerian economy.

He said in the report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the breakdown of the different sectors showed a 14.7 per cent growth rate in the ICT sector.

The minister said the ICT growth rate was greater than the combined 14.21 per cent growth of the second to seventh fastest-growing sectors of the economy in 2020.

“The telecommunications sector alone recorded a growth rate of 15.90 per cent, representing its highest growth rate in the last 10 years.

“In the NBS report for the Q1 2021, the ICT sector maintained its position as the fastest-growing sector of the economy.

“This, therefore, indicates that the Digital Economy sector has proven to be vital for the diversification of the Nigerian economy,’’ he said.

The minister said the feat was recorded through the implementation of the National Digital Economy Policy hinged on eight strategic pillars.

He noted that as part of the efforts aimed at implementing the policy, some projects were implemented nationwide including ICT Innovation Hubs, Digital Skills for Entrepreneurs and Innovators and Community IT Training Centers.

Others were Tertiary Institution Knowledge Centers (TIKC), School Knowledge Centers (SKC), Digital Economy Centers and Emergency Communication Centres (ECC).


The minister also said that during the outgoing year, the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy conducted a transparent bidding process for the provision of the 5G Network service.

He said the auction for the 3.5 gigahertz (GHz) spectrum for the 5G network service was won by Mafab Communications Ltd and MTN Nigeria Plc.

The minister said that the 5G network service would ensure increased capacity download speed by up to 20 times and decrease latency.

Clothing shops in Afghanistan’s western Herat province have begun removing the heads of display mannequins, in line with new directives given by the local office of the Taliban’s ministry for Islamic guidance.

Obeidullah Yari, a local business community leader, told VOA on Monday that about 20% of the shops in the provincial capital, also named Herat, have already implemented the order to escape punishment.

The Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention Vice, which is responsible for administering the Taliban’s interpretation of Islam, decreed last week that shop mannequins should have their heads removed for being offensive to Islam, warning that violators would be punished.

City mall owners and garment sellers initially criticized the Taliban directive, telling Afghan media that mannequins were also used to display clothes in other Islamic counties. But Yari said shopkeepers were now removing the heads of the dummies.

Aziz Rahman, the provincial head of the ministry, told local media he ordered shopkeepers to hack the heads off their mannequins because “they are idols.” He went on to explain that Islam prohibits idolatry, or the worshipping of idols.

Taliban authorities reportedly have also increased monitoring of public taxis in the capital, Kabul, to see if drivers are abiding by the ministry’s instructions related to women's right to travel.

The decree requires drivers to carry only those female passengers who wear a headscarf or Islamic hijab and are accompanied by a male relative if they travel more than 72 kilometers. It also instructs cabdrivers to grow beards, stop their vehicles at prayer times and stop playing music while driving.

The ministry reportedly has also banned Afghan women from driving. It has also ordered local channels to stop showing dramas and soap operas featuring actresses, and female news anchors to wear hijabs while on the air.

Taliban chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, in a recent interview to Afghan state television, defended the steps taken by the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention Vice, saying they should not be a matter of concern for anyone because “Afghanistan is Muslim nation and no one is opposed to Islamic laws in the country.”

Mujahid said, however, that all government “religious departments” are instructed not to “mistreat people and be polite to them" while giving them guidance about Islam.

The ultraconservative Taliban regained power in August and named an all-male interim Cabinet to govern the conflict-torn country in line with the group’s strict interpretation of Islam, despite pledging not to revert to the harsh polices of their previous regime from 1996 to 2001.

The government has allowed schoolboys to return to classes but girls across many Afghan provinces are still waiting for permission to do so and most women have been prevented from returning to work.

When the Taliban were last in power, girls were not allowed to attend school and women were barred from work as well as education. The then-Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, or the morals police, had been accused of serious human rights abuses, leading to Afghanistan’s isolation from the world.

Mujahid said that arrangements were being made to allow all Afghan girls to resume their educational activities, noting that schoolgirls across several provinces have already rejoined classes.

Critics, however, are skeptical of the Taliban assurances and say the group is gradually bringing back its repressive policies of the past.

“It was expected; but I would have welcomed every single employee of this ministry to be focused on poverty reduction, aid delivery and lifting the beggars from the street, feeding them & giving them a job as their 1st priority,” tweeted Torek Farhadi, a former Afghan official.

The United States and the global community at large have not recognized the new Taliban government and suspended most non-humanitarian financial assistance to the aid-dependent country.

Foreign countries continue to refuse to open direct political engagement with the Islamist group until it ensures respect for human rights, especially those of women, runs the country inclusively and cuts ties with transnational terrorists.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan is in the grip of a severe humanitarian crisis stemming from years of war, drought and poverty. The United Nations has repeatedly warned that more than half the population in the country are facing starvation, with nearly a million children at risk of dying because of a “severe acute malnutrition.”

Dukio:
Always underrating your country when other countries have it tough.


Stop feeling mediocre